What have you watched recently? 3D!

Plode · 30-08-2020 2:46am

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 · 30-08-2020 7:54am

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 · 30-08-2020 9:40am

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 · 30-08-2020 9:48am

"Get Out" (2017)

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

Tony EH · 30-08-2020 2:22pm

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 · 30-08-2020 7:58pm

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(",) · 01-09-2020 11:12am

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 · 02-09-2020 1:27am

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 · 02-09-2020 8:53am

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.

02-09-2020 5:49pm

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 · 02-09-2020 6:08pm

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 · 03-09-2020 11:35pm

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 · 04-09-2020 12:26am

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 · 05-09-2020 2:30am

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 · 05-09-2020 3:12pm

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 · 05-09-2020 11:22pm

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

Plode · 06-09-2020 3:55am

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 · 07-09-2020 12:22am

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

pixelburp · 08-09-2020 9:15am

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 · 08-09-2020 9:48am

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 · 10-09-2020 2:39pm

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 · 10-09-2020 2:52pm

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 · 12-09-2020 10:58pm

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 · 13-09-2020 4:16am

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 · 13-09-2020 3:07pm

dating amber

poor

Del.Monte · 13-09-2020 4:16pm

"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 · 13-09-2020 4:24pm

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 · 13-09-2020 7:43pm

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 · 14-09-2020 12:05am

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 · 16-09-2020 11:25pm

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

buried · 16-09-2020 11:44pm

The Visit (2015) This was desperate stuff. Found footage style shtick attempting to be a horror film. First of all, the two kids are the most annoying characters to have ever been shot on film, you are supposed to empathise with these two as the main protagonists in this thing, but from the very get-go they are about as like-able as getting a migraine in your head and a toothache in your arse. Secondly, the found footage editing does not work in this at all. Too many times the camera is conveniently placed by one of these two exactly where the action is going on. Like they drop the camera in a drain, there is the lens standing up the right way in the drain, in the water, looking at the scene. Fair enough if this happens once or twice but it happens all the time, plus the camera is constantly turned on at the start when nothing seems out of the ordinary, all night sometimes, even though one of these two is "making a documentary about my moms parents house" for whatever reason. Thirdly, we get lots of footage of a long haired auld wan crawling on the ground. No matter how many times I see a long haired woman crawl around the floor or the ground in countless other horror films that have this awful style gimmick in them I do not find it scary or unnerving. It wasn't scary the first time, its definitely not the 5000th time. This is a M night Shamayalan jobeen and there could be a twist at the end but I swear to god, I had zoned out so much the last five minutes of this, I started to notice I really need to clean the cobwebs in the corners of my ceiling. Then there was the credits. Utter scutter/10

johnny_ultimate · 17-09-2020 12:56am

The Painted Bird - A shallow pastiche of a European art film. A three-hour parade of misery and suffering shot in moody black & white, detailing one young boy's brutal journey through an unnamed part of Eastern Europe during WW2. Taboos are liberally shattered as we see a series of horrific, cruel acts inflicted on adults, children and animals alike. The cinematography is nice enough, but the film can't escape the shadow of its influences. This wants to be Come & See by way of a Bela Tarr film and even some torture porn... but it's ultimately substantially less interesting than that sounds. Whole thing left me feeling emotionally cold. The film simply lacks the clarity of vision of the great films it seeks to ape.

Oddly, The Painted Bird does sort of pull itself together at the end for a few unsubtle but poetic moments that visually underscore the dehumanising effects of the atrocities the protagonist has seen, been subjected to and even committed. But it's too late for a film that aims to shock you into a response - for me it just elicited a shrug.

A Brighter Summer Day - an exquisite piece of cinematic art. Edward Yang's coming-of-age epic - one enlivened by crimes and Taiwanese history - is an exercise in wonderful patience. It's the kind of film that throws out a stunning, narrative-shattering setpiece in the middle of the film, and then

have the balls to never even reference it again

. It ebbs and flows and evolves over four glorious hours. I saw Yi Yi a good few years ago and loved it, but this cements Yang as one of the greatest filmmakers to have lived.

Possession - bonkers yet impressive horror oddity, this. Everything is ramped all the ****ing way up - in particular Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill's insane performances. The special effects are ghastly and grotesque and wonderful. Glorious late night nonsense.

Used Cars - early Robert Zemeckis joint that has aged poorly in a few regards, and aged like a fine wine in many others. The film is mostly scattershot and often crude, and a lot of jokes don't land. But it works overall due to a committed cast (playing characters who range from lovable asshole to despicable asshole) and the many moments that do stick the landing.

It's absolutely preposterous, of course - Zemeckis and Bob Gale (working together a few years before Back to the Future) reject our reality and substitute their own. None of the logic holds together whatsoever - it features arguably the most absurdist court room scene in Hollywood history, and every plot setup is flimsy as all hell. But you get swept up in the screwball energy of it all, and it's hard not to have a good time. A major setpiece where a character attempts to force bad luck upon himself in a small bar is a masterpiece of physical comedy. But it's the third act that really puts a bow on this package: a lengthy, high-stakes and large-scale race against time that commits to its innate ridiculousness with impressive gusto. A grand old time.

flasher0030 · 17-09-2020 11:40am

buried wrote: »

The Visit (2015) This was desperate stuff. Found footage style shtick attempting to be a horror film. First of all, the two kids are the most annoying characters to have ever been shot on film, you are supposed to empathise with these two as the main protagonists in this thing, but from the very get-go they are about as like-able as getting a migraine in your head and a toothache in your arse. Secondly, the found footage editing does not work in this at all. Too many times the camera is conveniently placed by one of these two exactly where the action is going on. Like they drop the camera in a drain, there is the lens standing up the right way in the drain, in the water, looking at the scene. Fair enough if this happens once or twice but it happens all the time, plus the camera is constantly turned on at the start when nothing seems out of the ordinary, all night sometimes, even though one of these two is "making a documentary about my moms parents house" for whatever reason. Thirdly, we get lots of footage of a long haired auld wan crawling on the ground. No matter how many times I see a long haired woman crawl around the floor or the ground in countless other horror films that have this awful style gimmick in them I do not find it scary or unnerving. It wasn't scary the first time, its definitely not the 5000th time. This is a M night Shamayalan jobeen and there could be a twist at the end but I swear to god, I had zoned out so much the last five minutes of this, I started to notice I really need to clean the cobwebs in the corners of my ceiling. Then there was the credits. Utter scutter/10

Ah, I think you're being overcritical for the sake of it. It's not a bad film.
Bit of a twist at the end. But nothing ground-breaking.

The Black Oil · 17-09-2020 9:38pm

Midnight Run

Very enjoyable, I thought. It reminded me of Dumb and Dumber and the Blues Brothers, and it felt like it was pitched just right. Serious ish, but also goofy. You root for them and they go through the ringer and the road scenes (and dialogue) don't feel like they've been vetted by a committee. Didn't feel dated at all and good to see Yaphet Kotto too, haven't seen him since I watched Homicide: LOTS. And yes, because of the genre, some police cars end up broken, destroyed or in a ditch.

Homelander · 17-09-2020 9:43pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The Painted Bird - A shallow pastiche of a European art film.

Have to agree with you on this one. It's certainly a decent film, but I very much disliked the fact it went overboard trying to hammer home the message that war and persecution are hell, rather than just allow us to naturally come to that conclusion.

It's a stunning looking film, but just too exploitative, having the protagonist repeatedly encounter unspeakable depravity and cruelty literally everywhere he goes without respite.

If he had just taken the foot off the pedal slightly, it could have been one of the finest films of the past decade.

Still worth a watch and the 3 odd hours passes well, but a baffling missed opportunity for a timeless classic I thought by its end.

Come and See is a far better, more effective film that feels organic and credible.

Harry Palmr · 18-09-2020 11:32pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Possession - bonkers yet impressive horror oddity, this. Everything is ramped all the ****ing way up - in particular Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill's insane performances. The special effects are ghastly and grotesque and wonderful. Glorious late night nonsense

One day I'll watch this, I still remember the review in Starburst, not exactly a thumbs up to say the least

Used Cars - early Robert Zemeckis joint that has aged poorly in a few regards, and aged like a fine wine in many others. The film is mostly scattershot and often crude, and a lot of jokes don't land. But it works overall due to a committed cast (playing characters who range from lovable asshole to despicable asshole) and the many moments that do stick the landing.

It's absolutely preposterous, of course - Zemeckis and Bob Gale (working together a few years before Back to the Future) reject our reality and substitute their own. None of the logic holds together whatsoever - it features arguably the most absurdist court room scene in Hollywood history, and every plot setup is flimsy as all hell. But you get swept up in the screwball energy of it all, and it's hard not to have a good time. A major setpiece where a character attempts to force bad luck upon himself in a small bar is a masterpiece of physical comedy. But it's the third act that really puts a bow on this package: a lengthy, high-stakes and large-scale race against time that commits to its innate ridiculousness with impressive gusto. A grand old time.

Very enjoyable farce with two brilliant comic turns by Jack Warden as the warring rival car lot brothers.

The Concorde - Airport 79 (1979) Dir David Lowell Rich.

The final bedraggled entry in the Airport series is just terrible - it looks and feels like a TV movie of the era just with slightly coarser dialogue esp from the permanently horny Captain George Kennedy who along with Alain Delon and David Warner fill out the cramped cockpit. Of course this plane was still an exciting talking point when the film was made but it's technology and beauty aren't a feature at all really. It just happens to be a location for some of the most inept flying action scenes ever filmed. This cost more than Star Wars or Alien but as mentioned looks like TV. Hard to understand where the money went as the cast is very average. No big American names wanted to be on board by this installment. Watch it only for the laugh esp the distress flare moment at mach 2.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 1988

Still "Bodacious"! (dual guitar riff thing)

Tony EH · 19-09-2020 7:49am

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Possession - bonkers yet impressive horror oddity, this. Everything is ramped all the ****ing way up - in particular Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill's insane performances. The special effects are ghastly and grotesque and wonderful. Glorious late night nonsense.

Harry Palmr wrote: »

One day I'll watch this, I still remember the review in Starburst, not exactly a thumbs up to say the least

Amazing to think that this ended up on the Video Nasties list in the 80's.

flasher0030 · 19-09-2020 9:29am

Just watched Warrior there (again!!!). With Tom Hardy.
What a film. When the song by The National comes on near the end, it just gets me every time.

megaten · 19-09-2020 2:48pm

Watched Children of the Sea on screenanime.com, which still doesn't have an app so I had to hook my laptop up to my TV.
Saw it was one of the films planned fr the Japans Film Festival this year and it would have been nice to see it in the cinema. Plot is soothing to write home about but the visual are absolutely stunning and scream 'this was intended for a giant screen'

The Black Oil · 22-09-2020 8:46am

The Last Samurai

I recall wanting to see this back in the day, comparisons with Dances with Wolves are inevitable. We watched that in school, where we dubbed it Wolf Dancin'. Anyway, Samurai is a pretty good film, though it never quite reaches the heights you might see elsewhere. You're always a little conscious of a Western lens (pardon the pun) being shone on a story like this. To its credit, it never seems to pull on Cruise's star power as a way of driving the film, compared to story and character. The main battle sequence is pretty intense too.

For the record, I hate seeing horses fall on camera.

Sugarlumps · 28-09-2020 10:28am

Watched a decent doc called Tread. Colorado small town, dude gets slightly annoyed with the town counsel. Buys a dozer, turns it in to a vehicle straight out of Mad Max. Chaos ensues, should be turned into a movie.

pixelburp · 28-09-2020 10:42am

Inception (2010)

Re-watched this for what I believe is the first time since the cinema - or at most its first appearance on home release or "other means".

Holds up as a triumph of action cinema, perhaps Nolan's zenith of structural gimmickry that has come to define his blockbuster work. All the time and money spent on "real" sets and stunt-work means it hasn't aged a day: its various action set-pieces still breathless in execution, building to a legitimately exciting climax that remains the best Bond movie never made.

The dialogue though. What an absolute stinker of a script; the awe of the visual experience perhaps blinded me, first time around, to the near-endless streams of exposition. Not even exposition dressed up through action; no no. Actual, tedious tutorials. If a script is 3/4s into its runtime is still injecting explanations as to the internal logic, then it needed rewriting by someone with panache.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 28-09-2020 12:21pm

Watched an Irish film from last year called The Last Right.
Long story short it's basically two estranged brothers (one American, one an autistic teen) and a neighbour woman driving from Skibbereen to Rathlan Island with a coffin tied to the roof rack, so they can bring this dead old man back to his home village to be buried alongside his brother.

It's very hit and miss and there ends up being a lot of random side threads thrown into the main plot that are then resolved very quickly. Michael Huisman plays the older brother, I've never rated him much as an actor, but Niamh Algar plays the woman who is with them and she is fantastic, easy to see why she's a star on the rise. Her scenes with the younger brother, Louis, are probably the best ones in the film. There's a couple of genuine laughs throughout and all in all it's an enjoyable enough watch if you're just looking to switch off and relax the brain for 90 minutes.

flasher0030 · 28-09-2020 1:55pm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Watched an Irish film from last year called The Last Right.
Long story short it's basically two estranged brothers (one American, one an autistic teen) and a neighbour woman driving from Skibbereen to Rathlan Island with a coffin tied to the roof rack, so they can bring this dead old man back to his home village to be buried alongside his brother.

It's very hit and miss and there ends up being a lot of random side threads thrown into the main plot that are then resolved very quickly. Michael Huisman plays the older brother, I've never rated him much as an actor, but Niamh Algar plays the woman who is with them and she is fantastic, easy to see why she's a star on the rise. Her scenes with the younger brother, Louis, are probably the best ones in the film. There's a couple of genuine laughs throughout and all in all it's an enjoyable enough watch if you're just looking to switch off and relax the brain for 90 minutes.

Haven't seen The Last Right. Must give it a spin.
WAtched Calm with Horses. Also with Niamh Algar. Loved her in it. Seemed so natural for her. Seems like a very cool lady. Hope she does well.

Homelander · 28-09-2020 2:02pm

Niamh Algar is really good in the excellent Shane Meadows TV show the Virtues.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 28-09-2020 2:15pm

flasher0030 wrote: »

Haven't seen The Last Right. Must give it a spin.
WAtched Calm with Horses. Also with Niamh Algar. Loved her in it. Seemed so natural for her. Seems like a very cool lady. Hope she does well.

I haven't seen Calm With Horsed yet but I would imagine it's a vastly different kind of thing than The Last Right

Homelander wrote: »

Niamh Algar is really good in the excellent Shane Meadows TV show the Virtues.

She's in the new Ridley Scott associated thing for HBO, Raised by Wolves, at the moment. I'm sure it wasn't an overnight success for her, but it seems that way from the outside.

Decuc500 · 28-09-2020 4:44pm

The Dogs of War

A somehow forgotten early 80’s movie (it never appears on tv) about mercenaries hired to overthrow a regime in a small African country.
Very nice post Deer Hunter Christopher Walken performance. The intensity, facial tics and quirky delivery are all here.

I felt the Frederick Forsyth book dragged and the level of detail put into the planning of a coup was too much. It reads like a handbook on how to overthrow a government.
But the film condensed this detail into two very entertaining hours.

AMGer · 30-09-2020 10:42pm

A few older films the last two days

McCabe & Mrs Miller: first time seeing it, had been wanting to see it for a while. Splashed out on the criterion collection blu ray. Really excellent film, probably one that will benefit from repeat viewings. It features the most drab & dreary looking setting for a western that I’ve ever seen, yet the film still manages to look fantastic. I don’t think it’ll be everyone’s cup of tea though. It might not be fast paced enough for some tastes. The sound editing takes a bit to getting used to aswell. I love Robert Altman and this did not disappoint.

Django: Off the wall 60s spaghetti Western, I do enjoy these though. I need to check out more of Sergio Corbucci’s films. This is probably a good place to start. Lots of guns, lots of violence, really enjoyable 90 or so mins.

The Last Picture Show: Another I hadn’t seen before but it caught my attention on Sky Cinema. Again, really enjoyed this. Coming of age drama set in the backend of nowhere in early 50s Texas. Some great early career performances by Jeff Bridges, Cybil Shepard (& Randy Quaid). Great performances by Cloris Leachman and Ellen Burstyn aswell.

Red River: classic Western by Howard Hawks. Clips of it are seen in The Last Picture Show so I had an itching to dig it out again. One of better John Wayne performances IMO, Montgomery Clift in one of his first films is excellent alongside Wayne, Walter Brennan is amazing as always. If you like Westerns this is essential viewing. One of the best Westerns ever made.

Tony EH · 30-09-2020 10:46pm

AMGer wrote: »

Django: Off the wall 60s spaghetti Western, I do enjoy these though. I need to check out more of Sergio Corbucci’s films. This is probably a good place to start. Lots of guns, lots of violence, really enjoyable 90 or so mins.

If you can get hold of it, check out 'The Great Silence'. It's Corbucci's best and probably the best Spag western out there.

If you can, watch it with the English dub. The Italian never seems to work in westerns.

AMGer · 01-10-2020 12:03am

Tony EH wrote: »

If you can get hold of it, check out 'The Great Silence'. It's Corbucci's best and probably the best Spag western out there.

I actually found a reasonably priced copy of the blu ray online today. High praise indeed to say probably the best Spaghetti western - you’d put it ahead of the Leone Spag westerns?

What have you watched recently? 3D!

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