What have you watched recently? 3D!

Decuc500 · 12-12-2022 12:26pm

Loving You

One of prolific Hong Kong action director Johnnie To's early cop movies.

Also part melodramatic romance but the action stlyings of To's later cops vs robbers films can be glimpsed. Good stuff.

p to the e · 14-12-2022 11:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974103#Comment_119974103

Extraction was based in Bangladesh.

pixelburp · 14-12-2022 12:40pm

Good Time (2017)

A theatrical running-length of provocative, stress-inducing dirtbag spinning of constantly wobbling plates; proof that you don't need a protagonist even remotely likeable, relatable or even competent to anchor your film - only a compelling one, even if their actions have you watching the film through your fingers. A more egregious piece of shít than Robert Pattinson's Connie you'd struggle to find: his very introduction a moment of selfish, misplaced protectiveness as he wrenched his special-needs brother Nick out of a therapy session, just as a breakthrough had occurred ... all so he could be Connie's partner in a bank robbery. A robbery that then goes horrendously wrong for poor Nick, precipitating a succession of terrible, sometimes stomach churning - but nearly always calamitous - decisions Connie would make to get his brother out of jail. And while perhaps those decisions were driven by something passing for "love" in his brother - or guilt over his fate - a constant embellishment of pronounced selfishness in Connie's behaviour would only serve to sully any nobility present in the pursuit of the bail money.

Perhaps spun out of story a little too far from the final, somewhat heartbreaking scene, while Uncut Gems would later evolve & grow that sense of escalating panic & stress, but this was a white-knuckle series of moments that left me constantly groaning, "... you fúcking ásshole, Connie" at the screen. While the Safdie's use of "street casting" for their supporting roles is just exceptional.

steve_r · 20-12-2022 12:53pm

V for Vendetta - 2005

I'd never seen this - I remember at the time getting the impression that the reviews weren't great but thought it was very good - given the subject matter and some of the characters (the British news guy could go straight on GB news), it nearly works better in 2022 than in 2005.

pixelburp · 20-12-2022 4:13pm

Outland (1981)

I had a sudden urge to return to this minor Guilty Pleasure after maybe a decade or so since the first watch. I think the desire spawned after watching Peter Hyam's surprisingly enjoyable 2010. And if another turn around the track revealed more flaws than I recalled, it remained the tense, grimy little number I had enjoyed; there remains much to enjoy for those who enjoy their visions of life in space as something starkly utilitarian, all feeling like it's held together with duct tape & worker exploitation. You can probably draw a line between the likes of this and The Expanse from recent years.

It's practically a Pavlovian response to summarise the film as "High Noon in space" - but it really does function like a transplant of a Western's sundry tropes onto a moon of Jupiter. Not to mention having the feel like it might have been fast-tracked in the white heat of the success of 1979's Alien. The aesthetics of this white collar, dirty & corporatised vision of space so genetically similar to Ridley Scott's transformative film, the appearance of a Xenomorph wouldn't have caused much confusion.

As it was, this was a stripped-down story of drug abuse & Mayoral Corruption; a bullishly anti-capitalist heart at its centre too - perhaps more than Alien itself was. Sean Connery put in a strong shift as an exhausted soul among a colony full of drained, cynical individuals; not so much the last honest man, but someone wondering if he even had the capacity for decency in the first place. While Peter Boyle played the de-facto Mayor of the mining colony with a casual and pragmatic indifference.

Mad_maxx · 20-12-2022 9:17pm

Terminator Dark Fate last night ( 2019 ) , saw this for the first time about a year ago and I still think it’s hugely underrated, action scenes are awesome, love how the terminator splits into two, the tall Canadian actress who plays the augmented super soldier from the future is great and the Mexican terminator ( while no Robert Patrick ) is really solid, finally I thought Linda Hamilton was even better here than in Terminator 2

can’t understand why this movie flopped

PS , Arnold’s very tongue in cheek role stayed the right side of pure ham

shrapnel222 · 21-12-2022 10:20am

The Fabelmans: Really enjoyable kwirky coming of age movie by Spielberg. allegedly based on his own childhood

pixelburp · 21-12-2022 4:16pm

Matinee (1993)

This deftly avoided the pitfalls of the movies-about-movies genre in not possessing that resting sense of pomposity and self-importance those sorts of movies can fall foul of. Rather than being something reaching for worthiness, this was a film about Cinema represented by gleeful chaos, noise, exploitation, and manipulation - but never once presenting any of those aspects as negatives. Indeed, the schlocky gimmickry of Jon Goodman's William Castle stand-in was invoked as nothing but heady & harmless fun. The machinations of the loveable form of huckster: one who understood the cathartic and therapeutic value of the horror genre, all of which underpinned by his monologue about a caveman's brush with death; B-Movies by extension merely a continuation of that most visceral form of entertainment.

So while movies-about-movies might tend to wallow in their own sense of self-importance, here Joe Dante knew that while his passion might be dismissed as mere "trash" - it was trash that had value and worth all of its own. No cynicism, no postmodernism or irony within its blood, just pure joy for its subject matter & era, most overtly championed by the fictitious movie we would catch moments of - the fantastically titled Mant. If there was any subtext, then it was probably drawn from the parallel theme of paranoia over the Cold War at its hottest moment. The existential fear of it all ending tomorrow; but rather than adding a bleakness to things, it instead enriched this idea of cinema existing as a communal emotional outlet; to live and enjoy ourselves today, find love and friendship where we can. All while being taken in by a more charming form of hustle.

Fysh · 22-12-2022 9:50pm

Christmas Bloody Christmas

It's fair to say I enjoy a bit of festive genre-bending; look no further than the recent Violent Night (Die Hard with actual Santa Claus in the John McClane role) for an example of it done well. So this should be right up my alley as a bit of goofy Christmas fun - essentially Terminator in a Santa costume.

Unfortunately, it's the wrong kind of bad. This wants to be a Friday 13th: Jason Lives! sort of self-aware, let's-have-fun-with-it film. But the characters are all tedious Gen X bores in the bodies of 20-somethings, the dialogue is awful, and will exhaust your goodwill at least half an hour before it's over. (It's along time since a 90 minute film crawled along as slowly as this). It's a pity as the conceit isn't inherently bad, but this execution of it is.

mikeecho · 24-12-2022 6:08pm

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

It's a annual event for me.

"Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?"

Sad Professor · 26-12-2022 1:54pm

Watched the so-called director's cut of Rocky IV which cuts out as much as it adds back in. Very underwhelming and messes up a cheesy '80s classic.

Snake Plisken · 27-12-2022 12:59am

So watched Knives Out for the first time last night and really enjoyed it. Great murder mystery story and strong performances from Ana De Armas, who you really care what happens to her and Daniel Craig and the all star supporting cast. A solid 8 out of 10.

So tonight I decided to watch Glass Onion and found it a disappointing follow up to Knives Out. It has an over convoluted story with less interesting characters. So I'd have to give it a 6.5 out of 10.

I know it's getting great reviews but I do hope the next one gets back to something closer in tone to the first movie.

Mad_maxx · 27-12-2022 10:28am

Watched 1917 for the second time last night, terrific movie, you feel fully immersed in the journey and the sound is so real , far better film than Dunkirk which was released in the same year

Mr.Nice Guy · 27-12-2022 8:49pm

I watched The Rock (1996). I've seen it before but the last time was probably 20+ years ago. Connery is definitely the star of the show but I liked Ed Harris too. Nicolas Cage didn't bring as much to the table as I thought. A scene late on did bug me when Connery is fighting one of the bad guys...

The bad guy calls him an "English prick" and Connery's character, who was earlier said to be from Glasgow, let's it go. I was fully expecting after Connery dealt with him that he'd say something like, "Actually, I'm a Scottish prick." That would have been the line of the movie. The film does seem to be lacking some good one-liners.

Overall, it's an entertaining action film. I don't think I would put it in the bracket of the top 90s action films like T-2 or Speed, but it's fun. I had forgotten Michael Biehn is in it and I enjoyed his time on screen, limited as it was.

silliussoddius · 27-12-2022 9:36pm

Some good one liners

your besht, losers complain about doing your besht. Winners go home and frick the prom queen

NIMAN · 27-12-2022 9:41pm

Watched Banshees of Inisherin.

Not sure what to think tbh. I liked the comedy in it, plenty of funny lines.

But the film as a whole? Just wasn't sold on it. In terms of quality, well behind In Bruges and Three Billboards. Not sure what all the hype is about.

silverharp · 28-12-2022 10:52am

if you like old 50's film noir, this is a good one, the antagonist is great, there is a YT channel DK classics which has a decent playlist.

https://youtu.be/XIeFKTbg3Aw

steve_r · 28-12-2022 8:18pm

Sleuth 1972

This is based on a play, and the 1972 version stars Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier. I'm on a bit of a Michael Caine buzz at the moment and I wanted to check it out. Laurence Olivier is also an actor I haven't seen a lot of, but know by reputation. This story is very plot-driven, so much so that I don't want to comment at all lest I inadvertently spoil something. I found it very interesting and enjoyable and I loved both of the lead performances.

Rope 1948

This is one that was on my list for a long time, another play adaptation, this one directed by Hitchcock and starring James Stewart. The story opens with two college students committing a murder, and hiding the corpse in plain sight while they hold a dinner party. Hitchcock really builds the tension and the story rattles along at pace - the whole thing clocks in under 90 mins - if it was made today it would be way longer and nowhere near as good. Highly recommended.,

Decuc500 · 29-12-2022 11:52am

Barbarian

This years hyped up horror movie. Mainly delivers.

It might be a standard ‘Don’t go in the basement’ type of film but it is so confidently directed it feels like watching something a bit different.

The nice touches of humour and a neat ending ensure it isn’t as nasty or bleak as so many of these movies are.

Emily The Criminal

Part tense thriller, part searing indictment of the American jobs industry.

A woman can’t get a proper paying job due to past convictions so is tempted into joining a scamming operation to make ends meet. Of course she gets deeper into the criminal life and things spiral out of control.

The steely look and insistent score gives this an indie Michael Mann feel.

The Hunted

I’ve watched most of William Friedkin's films multiple times. You kind of have to. Even his less well received films are peculiar enough to stand out.

The Hunted is really one long chase scene. Very little exposition, just Tommy Lee Jones’ tracker trying to catch Benicio del Toro’s damaged special ops soldier. It’s as lean as thriller films get. Contains some wince inducing knife fighting scenes.

Mr.Nice Guy · 29-12-2022 11:28pm

I got around to watching Wolfwalkers (2020). I liked it more than I thought it would. I do feel a bit conflicted on the ending though.

I think I would have preferred a darker one rather than the happy-ever-after conclusion. It would be more in keeping with the way things tend to go in Irish mythology.

monkeyactive · 30-12-2022 3:10pm

The assassination of Jesse James

Beautiful slow moving Western with a great score. I would go far as saying it's an underrated masterpiece. True story so less of a gun slinging hair raiser and more of a study of a man coming apart with paranoia under the weight of his own legend. For me its the last great Brad Pitt performance before he started accepting rubbish films and appearing in too many things acting as the character Brad Pitt ( see oceans 11 series , Mr and Mrs smith ,world war Z etc )

Casey Affleck is outstanding as the despicable Robert Ford.

This film really rewards having read the Ron Hansen Novel. Without having read the book I could imagine that the film would lack a lot of context and some of the weight behind the happenings on screen would be absent. The film is kind of like a collection of some of the most important scenes in the novel. I have to dock points though as in the novel there are some edge of the seat bank robberies and shootouts that read like the final act in Heat but these are disappointingly absent from this film.

8/10

30-12-2022 8:25pm

Vengeance (2022)

Definitely one of the best films that I've seen this year. Smart, self-aware, topical, at times heartfelt and somehow managing to pull off that difficult combo of tense mystery with comedic elements due to a very good script. Runs rings around that vacuous "Glass Onion" as a mystery too. A great turn by Ashton Kutcher in the supporting cast.

steve_r · 31-12-2022 1:43pm

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

This is the Kenneth Branagh version where he directs and stars as Poirot. I'd read the book years and years ago, I remember enjoying it but didn't remember the plot/conclusion so I went into this cold. There's a high-profile cast with Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, and Willem Dafoe, and that's almost a distraction at times. There's a lot of time spent trying to introduce us to the characters and I felt it bogged down the story. A key part of the plot is only presented midway through and it would have been better (see below) if this was done earlier. I wasn't mad about Brannagh as Poirot - it's a unique character that can be over the top at times, and he really leans into that. Overall I left the film thinking that there was a better way to tell the story, which is why I ended up watching....

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

This is the Sidney Lumet version (a director I love), and has Albert Finney as Poirot. Finney portrays him as eccentric and a bit mad at times, but relatively grounded when he interacts with other characters, and I much preferred this take on the character. Lument starts the story off with a key piece of background that sets the scene for the rest of the story. This film also has a big cast (Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery etc) but it uses them sparingly and I think the story works better as a whole. Having said that, I think both films have characters that don't really add anything to the story. As a whole though, I think the 1974 version is the way to go if you want to see this story on screen.

pixelburp · 01-01-2023 8:41am

First Man (2018)

That first set-piece made me think of Top Gun: Maverick's own opening scenes, being an interesting contrast of perspective when it came to our collective species' love to push boundaries. Tom Cruise's opus positted experimental flight as something thrilling, evocative - dangerous but alluring too. Cool, even. First Man took the opposite angle: Ryan Gosling's Neil Armstrong piercing of the atmosphere was rendered as something utterly terrifying; our technology nothing but a thin facade against the howling roar as the atmosphere dissolved outside, the planet actively trying to tear the plane apart. This was a trend throughout the film that made for an arresting change in approach when it came to Hollywood's presentation of the Space Race. That while the maths and engineering was exacting, the expertise unmatched, the machines themselves were nothing but tin cans thrown into a storm, their occupants stoic madmen who had little agency in their own fates once the rockets launched.

Beyond those scenes though, it was a somewhat infuriating thing to watch in places: Damien Chazelle had no sensible grasp of the terrestrial and domestic drama, instead tossing around what should have been quiet, still compositions with the "shaky cam" effect; a superficial and nauseating affectation beloved by those who think it conveys instant authenticity and emotional truthfulness to images. By all accounts it had its place when used to shake the viewer around as they were trapped within those aforementioned tin cans - but when it was used during a tense scene between parents processing their grief? Honestly, it was maddening. There were great performances here with Claire Foy and Gosling both vibing with quite different energies - not that you'd have seen them half the time for all the bobbing about by the camera.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

It's easy to forget that the enjoyment of a film, or cinema in general, ultimately rests with the viewer. We don't watch these things with an objectivist mind, in fact it runs counter to the nature of cinema for its audience to possess cold detachment towards a movie; many of the great directors would intentionally provoke a reaction through their images. Into the cinema or living-room we bring our biases, prejudices - and who we were as people at that time. We age physically, but our emotional perspective matures - or at least one might hope so; that ability to discern, process, and empathise with other people - if even fictional.

So by way of example, enter Full Metal Jacket. I've now seen this precisely two times: the first in my very early 20s during college and barely past my teens; the second recently and 20+ years later as a middle-aged man & parent of two. The idiotic post-teenager found the Boot Camp scenes hilarious in exactly the kind of transgressive way a total moron would respond to all the racism and homophobia; while my older head shuddered at the grinding dehumanisation that entire act was dedicated to. The nuance and sophistication of those starkly filmed sequences went over my head back in the day - instead it was a case of hohoho, that troll teased that black guy about watermelon. This time around, I watched these young men stripped of their identity and sense of self with constant discomfort, the zenith that moment Private Pyle was beaten by his peers; the victim naked and reduced to a sobbing infant after the attack. Born again hard, to quote the much-quoted Gunnery Sergeant, the process was complete.

TL:DR? Aside from all that rambling introspection, I can see why people have been a little slow to laud this Kubrick film above the others 'cos it was an odd experience; a difficult one to pin down. It was more of an ambling, slightly aimless montage of disconnected moments than a precisely constructed narrative - the bifurcation of the acts in Boot Camp and those in Vietnam was utterly jarring. I'm still not sure where the film wanted me to get to once the credits rolled, beyond the sense that war was a dehumanising waste of human potential and beyond senseless. But then again maybe that's all it ever needs to be when it comes to the subject of war?

Sad Professor · 01-01-2023 9:42am

Causeway with Jennifer Lawrence

Understated indie drama about a wounded military engineer (Lawrence) who returns home to New Orleans where she forms a bond with the local mechanic. Nice little film which I probably liked more than it deserved. Casting, score and cinematography make up for some stagy first-time direction and the undercooked script's middling exploration of trauma. Lawrence and (the real standout) Brian Tyree Henry do a lot of work to make this feel authentic.

steve_r · 02-01-2023 9:13pm

You Are Not My Mother - 2022

This film had passed me by before I saw it named on an RTE list of the best films of 2022. It's a phychosical horror film, the premise is that the mother leaves her teenage daughter and then returns as different to before. I thought the acting and the direction were superb, it's very grounded and you really see things from the perspective of the lead actor. Worth checking out.

A murder of quality - 1991

This is an adaptation of John LeCarre's second book of the same title. LeCarre himself did the screenplay, and it's typical of his type of story - complex, morally ambiguous and rarely straightforward. The premise is that George Smiley is investigating a murder of a woman in a college town. This was a TV movie back in the day so production values weren't great but the acting was excellent. A very young Christian Bale plays one of the students in the story. If you like LeCarre's work then this is worth checking out.

A quick hat tip for the recommendations on Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and Vengeance that were tipped in this thread - enjoyed both.

walkonby · 03-01-2023 1:20pm

An Cailín Ciúin - finally made the effort to go see this in the cinema. Beautiful film that does a lot with a little. Period details are charming for those of us around in Ireland in the 80s. (And an interesting contrast with Banshees, which is a lot stagier, and obviously at more of a remove from Irish culture and experience.)

Glass Onion - enjoyed Knives Out, but this began to unravel after an entertaining first act. Rian Johnson’s scripts always try too hard to be clever. Would like to see him adapting someone else’s story.

Corsage - similar to but much better than Sofia Coppola’s fictionalised Marie Antoinette biopic, a rock and roll reimagining of the life of Austrian Empress Elisabeth. Recommend, but be prepared for a slow film, which feels long despite the under 2 hr runtime.

White Noise - a novel that never seemed likely to translate well to the screen. Good performances throughout and some well-realised scenes, but the postmodern melding of genres that produced equal measures of humour and disquiet on the page is awkwardly executed here, with the film lurching from satire to farce to thriller and back again. Disjointed. Fun (if overlong) credit sequence.

steve_r · 04-01-2023 10:13pm

This is England (2004)

Another film I had on my list for a long time - and one that really lived up to expectations. It's an amazing film which is heartbreaking at times. It tells the story of a young boy growing up without a father, and most of the story is told from his perspective.

The performances are excellent and the dialogue really rings true. The film deals with a lot of heavy political points in a very sincere way, which can be a challenge in a film like this. The final scene reminded me of the final scene in the 400 blows by Truffaut, and it is an image that will stay with me for a long time.

The Menu (2022)

I saw the trailer for this in the cinema and thought at the time that it looked rubbish. Since then I became aware of the strong connection the film has with Succession which is a show I love. The director has directed a number of Succession episodes and one of the writers has also written for the show, and that shows in the writing, with a similar sense of humour applied.

The setup here is a celebrity chef (Ralf Feines) hosting a number of rich people, and one "regular" person (Anna Taylor Joy) on a private island. It's a horror/comedy, which I think is a particularly hard genre to pull off, given how subjective comedy can be. It didn't fully work for me - I don't think the central chef character was particularly well written, and honestly, I think they could have cast someone better than Fiennes in the role. He is an amazing actor - but I'm not sure the part suited him. Anna Taylor Joy on the other hand was excellent. The film lacked some of the creative devices horror films have used to build tension and atmosphere and I think it was a bit underwhelming from a horror perspective.

Overall it's a decent film - just one I think could have been better if different choices were made.

pixelburp · 05-01-2023 1:21pm

Blow Out (1981)

Absolute top drawer sleaze from the master of such, who could take material that might have been vulgar trash in another director's hands, and make it ... uh... well, a slightly classier brand of trash by dint of De Palma's reputation & mastery of the camera to make everything so compelling and beautiful and horrifying all at the same time. This was a messy, slightly chaotic kind of political conspiracy, and I'm not sure it stood up to scrutiny, but equally the film sometimes seemed disinterested in the actual machinations of the plot; instead often focusing on John Travolta's lead as he manually pieced together the mystery from his editing room. This film made the analog & very tactile process of turning still images into moving pictures absolutely engrossing.

That said. The tension and intensity was constantly, and almost single-handedly, pulled down by Nancy Allen's performance; a fine actor in other things, but here her affectation of a beaten-down and slightly bewildered woman never gelled. Her attempt to play concussed was an especially cringe-inducing moment (not helped by Travolta's character hitting on her!). It wasn't enough to undercut the drama of the final act mind you, and maybe making her a whimpering victim was part of the masterplan? The finale hit hard, despite that encroaching antipathy, and ultimately on-brand for the kind of worldview De Palma tended to infuse his stories with. While the last scene - the last line in fact - was a mic-drop few thrillers of this ilk could hope to match.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 05-01-2023 2:06pm

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Recorded off BBC on Christmas Day, but also available on Apple TV +

A review on Letterboxd calls it "The Snowman but make it group therapy" which is pretty accurate. It's an animated short, based on a very popular book, that's about a small boy trying to find home, who is joined by the animals along the way. They basically spout little lines of seld help at him along the way, and depending on your levels of cynicism, you'll either hate it, or end up a crying mess. I was somewhere in the middle for the most part.

The animation is gorgeous, it's a real shame that Western animation only seems to go for this kind of style in shorts. The score is lovely, and although it's very on the nose with its lessons, it sometimes doesn't hurt to be reminded of these very simple things.

What have you watched recently? 3D!

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