What have you watched recently?

The Mission
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091530/


Had been putting off watching this one for ages - seems like everybody else in the world had seen it and kept berating me for not watching it. Anyway, it's great. Everything is right, the music, the photography, the acting. It deals with all the themes I love in movies, religion, politics, sin, redemption, love, violence, colonialism. This is a big film.

There also comes a point when you watch a lot of films that you become immune to Robert De Niro. You forget how good he is, because it's such a truism. This movie reminded me though - first time in ages I've said to myself, 'wow he's one of the best ever'
9/10

The Killing Fields
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087553/


Same director as The Mission, had it for a while and was never really in the mood for watching it. The story is well known, and is pretty horrific. I've been to Cambodia and visited alot of the places in the movie, but seeing it on the screen did remind me what a terrible part of history this was.

Not as impressed with the movie though - seems to have dated badly. The main actor guy is actually really bad in some parts - although the friendship is done very well, and the main Cambodian actor is superb. Music is awful and jarring - complete opposite of The Mission.

6/10

Tokyo Sonata
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0938341/


This one was a complete shock and blew my socks off. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves movies - absolute treat of a film. On the surface, this deals with unemployment and it's effect on a modern Japanese Family - but it goes much deeper and darker. Kind of a modern day Death of a Salesman, except with all the quirkiness and freshness Japanese directors/writers seem to bring.

Let down a little when it the action reaches its apex - but has one of the most affecting final scenes I've seen in a long time. The director of this one is famour for horror movies, but I haven't seen any of his previous films.

9/10.

Robocop..................Drop your weapon, you have 20 seconds to comply!!

I never get sick of this movie so I slapped it on for the GF who had never seen it before. I think the satirical edge flew over her head but on the most part she really enjoyed it. The movie's special effects and make-up haven't dated one bit and it still looks awesome and "gritty" at the same time.

Ed-209 still creeps me out as a faceless monster and Ronny Cox is such a dickhead in this and Total Recall

Also watched Robocop 2 later last night and, yikes, what a drop in quality. It basically disregards Robocop's struggle to come to terms with who he is and the fact that he regained his human mannerisms again towards the end of the 1st movie.

The plot is ridiculous and plot holes so big you could park a bus in them. Changing the owner of OCP from a sweet old man in the 1st film to a sour villian in the 2nd makes no sense. (As is the obvious visual style of OCP as nazi's with their armed guards dressed like SS officers and big red banners with a white circle and OCP logo in the middle.......good grief)

Daft and stupid film that even the cast and crew thought it was crap with scenes of a humanised Robocop cut out completely.

It's only saving grace was the spectacular stop-animation work done on the Robocop 2 machine and the action scenes. The last fight action scene in particular showcasing how awesome stop-animation was.

I'm not going to even attempt to watch the rest of the Robocop canon, they're pure drivel.

All in all, it got me thinking of the upcoming Robocop reboot. Of the entire franchise the 1st film is the only worthwhile one, so this reboot certainly can't do a worse job than the godawful sequels and TV movies.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 1974
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072271/


I saw this a long time ago in the IFI, but it mustn't have had an impression on me because I didn't remember it being so good. I love the naturalism - the speech is even hard to make out at times. Great use of violence and gore, even a little bit of humour - great slow build up to the inevitable madness and horror at the end. Loved it.

8/10

Suspiria
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076786/


My first Dario Argento, and hopefully not my last. I hear this is probably his best, and it was very good indeed. I wasn't really expecting much depth to it - but it was a surprisingly thoughful film. Really weird and great use of music, stylised gore, occult themes, touching on feminism, sexuality, religion - also very cool.

8/10

The Human Centipede


Hmmm...... Trash horror that simply wasn't trashy enough. I was expecting much more of a kitsch factor. The little amount of kitsch dissappeared after the first 20 minutes or so and then I was just left watching the depraved musings of some sick director. I truly felt dirty after watching this one. I was expecting something akin to The Room, but it was actually straight-down-the-line.

You only need to hear about this one - you don't need to go see it.

0/10

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1032846/


Holy crap this one was tough going. Much more frightening than most of the horror I watched last week. It's the story of two woman in communist-era Romania trying to get an abortion for one of the women. And it's as harrowing as it sounds - doesn't pull any punches at all. The acting is unbelievably good - and the realist style is great - lots of long static shots where the audience only hears what is going on just off-screen. It was apparently made for only half a million dollars. Definitely a great film, but I'll only watch it the once I think.

9/10

Just about to start watching Disney's Sword in the Stone.

Classic

padma wrote: »

Whats the name of this film please?

I can't tell you the name, because it does not have a name. The film is simply represented by a symbol. It the film formally known as "Prince".
It's directed by the same guy that directed that film about sexuality. The black and white one, it's four hours long, an elegant lady hand wraps and unwraps a live, male, chicken in tinfoil before, three hours in she lays an egg herself, the camera dwells on the egg for the last hour and we, the audience are left to ponder the meaning. Eventually I came up with the answer and when I finished watching the film I felt free.
But, I wouldn't expect you to understand because you're not as in to film as I am.

Watched Dawn Of The Dead remake again. This was actually a surprising film for me when it came out as I was expecting a pretty crap film, given that it was a remake nobody wanted.

Very stylised film with Synders prints all over it (various pointless slow-mo's, that dark contrast / high saturation colour mix, soundtrack). As a zombie film it wasn't as violent as I'd like it to be, you have to have at least one shot of zombies eating organs :pac:, but it still had it's tense moments and that dread of a zombie apocalypse.

As a remake, it's pretty good and definitely one of the better zombie movies of recent years.

I just wish that

4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days - Very well done film, brilliant performances.




Unforgiven - Badass.

Watched Monsters... total load of ****e

'Them'

One of the best of the 1950's atomic big bug movies, that's still entertainng today. Surprisingly slow building and well acted, it's about giant mutated ants that appear in the New Mexico desert and make their way up to California where they are eventually defeated by the humans. The giant ants themselves aren't bad creations for the time, even if they are terribly slow moving and signal their presence with a bizarre high pitched sound.




'The Atomic Cafe'

A more serious take on the 1950's "Atomic Age", 'The Atomic Cafe' is, at times, a damning report in the manipulation, deceit and outright lies of American propaganda concerning the weaponry, enemy and conflicts of the period. There's no voiceover included, it's simply giving the propaganda enough rope to hang itself. The sight of an atomic mushroom cloud has never lost its ability to strike fear into ones heart, but especially disturbing is the displayed tendency on behalf of some areas of American society to want to use "nukes" at the slightest drop of the hat! News footage showing senators and politicians publicly advocating using atomic weaponry during the Korean war is chilling to say the least and viewed from today can only make one thankful that the Russians had possession of the bomb as well, as god alone knows how many more cities would have been "wiped off the map", in the same vain as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, if they had had their way.