What have you watched recently? 3D!

Spookies (1986)

One of those movies that has fond memories for me seeing the cover in the video shop but never being allowed to rent it.



Its a supernatural / psychic / zombie / human spider mish mash of genres and even has farting living dead. Pure and utter cheese but unfortunately, not the enjoyable kind of cheese.

I just watched Elephant (2003) by Gus Van Sant. I know his style can be very divisive - I still don't know whether I detested Last Days or just thought it was okay.

So I can get that this film has a certain style (and I get the "Walking: The Movie" jokes too). And so many people love this movie, but I just can't get me head around the acting / reactions when the shooting takes place. So many people standing around deadpan, barely reacting, as if a glass of milk had been spilled as opposed to a school shooting. I don't get how that can be excused or defended?

The Raging Bile Duct wrote: »

It takes a little bit of time to get its ducks in a row - and there's one plot point that's just a tad too convenient - but it gets interesting once you find out what Synchronic can do.

Watched it. It was ok. It seemed like it was going to come up with some fascinating unexpected ending. But it didn't. But it was satisfactory enough.

I would recommend it, only for we have access to so much media content these days, and there are far more movies that one would be better off spending 2 hours with, in my opinion.

just finished watching "the dissident", new documentary by Brian Fogel (the guy who did Icarus). It's a grim and fascinating documentary about Jamal Khashoggi's assassination. Incredibly slick, well paced accompanied by a great score.  8/10

The Matador

Pierce Brosnan is brilliant, weird, sinister, sleazy, hilarious, broken and just his best role. Greg Kinnear and him bounce off each other so well throughout the film. It's great fun and I think it flew under an awful lot of people's radars.

Youtube threw this up for me, set in a Dublin prison , starring Patrick Magoohan, looks interesting , watching it now

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.

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.

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

'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

"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.

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.