What have you watched recently?

Tony EH

Mickeroo wrote: »

I like Smith but he's nowhere near as good as Tarantino imo, I wouldn't really call Smith a good director more a good writer. Apart from Death Proof(which was only mediocre) I don't think Tarantino has made a bad film at all.

Hmmmm...I still waiting for him to do something as good as 'Reservoir Dogs'.

OldeCinemaSoz

WARHORSE

It's along way from DUEL and JAWS and very manipulative,
coincidental and santized BUT for all that I found it emotional,
expertly shot and fascinating.

Maybe for all the wrong reasons I'll admit and it could've been shot HERE
with a few maidens dancing at the crossroads, BUT for an intro
to war for my ten year old son it threw up tons of debate.

Mickeroo

Tony EH wrote: »

Hmmmm...I still waiting for him to do something as good as 'Reservoir Dogs'.

I thought Pulp Fiction was better. He'll probably never make a film as good as either of those again but I'm quite happy for him to make films that are good in their own right, you can't really compare some of his later films with those either as they're very different types of films. Comparing Kill Pill to Pulp Fiction/Reservoir dogs wouldn't be a world away from comparing Hugo to Taxi Driver imho.

veritable

Kill The Irishman is actually quite good. Would definitely recommend. Saw the ChangeUp last night and it was pure sh!te!

JohnMearsheimer

I just watched The Woodsman. Compelling stuff and a great performance by Kevin Bacon.

titan18

Just watched JCVD on Netflix there and loved it. Wasn't sure at the start whether it was going to be some sort of weird self-parody or an action film, but it worked quite well for what it was in the end.

If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend watching it, since it's on the Irish Netflix.

Mickeroo

Wathed Dear Zachery on netflix tonight after a few recommendations on here. Its a documentary, best viewed knowing nothing about it like I did. Amazingly powerful emotional rollercoaster of a film. Close to tears in parts. Could not recommend it enough.

BeefyS

Take Shelter

Great stuff. michael shannon was absolutely awesome in it. been on kind of a roll with good films recently, drive, citizen kane and now take shelter.. i have a dvd of alien versus predator 2: requiem to take me back down to earth hell why was it even given a subtitle of "requiem". probably taken from "the big book of film subtitles" right below "trouble in jamaica"

Dave147

BeefyS wrote: »

Take Shelter

Great stuff. michael shannon was absolutely awesome in it. been on kind of a role with good films recently, drive, citizen kane and now take shelter.. i have a dvd of alien versus predator 2: requiem to take me back down to earth hell why was it even given a subtitle of "requiem". probably taken from "the big book of film subtitles" right below "trouble in jamaica"

Michael Shannon wasn't in Drive or Citizen Kane

:pac::pac::pac:

tim_holsters

But he is in Shotgun Stories. Readers of this thread be advised.

BeefyS

Dave147 wrote: »

Michael Shannon wasn't in Drive or Citizen Kane

:pac::pac::pac:

ahh my mistake. difference between role and roll :P

Judgement Day

Albert's Memorial (2009) Made for ITV. Caught this one by accident last night and, due to the presence of David Jason, watched it all the way through. A voyage of discovery by three old wartime buddies....very watchable. Also starred David Warner who is surely a doppelgänger for RTE's Tom McGuirk?

Snake Plisken

Hobo with a shotgun saw this up in the new releases on US netflix brilliant low budget movie Rutger Hauer was excellent in his role, should have got an oscar nod

budgemook

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Hobo with a shotgun saw this up in the new releases on US netflix brilliant low budget movie Rutger Hauer was excellent in his role, should have got an oscar nod

Have being avoiding this. Might watch it I suppose.

Snake Plisken

budgemook wrote: »

Have being avoiding this. Might watch it I suppose.

Just be aware of what your going to watch which is a hommage to low budget 80's horror movies! If that's not your thing then I suppose avoid.

budgemook

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Just be aware of what your going to watch which is a hommage to low budget 80's horror movies! If that's not your thing then I suppose avoid.

Well like, I'm a big Evil Dead 2 fan...

Snake Plisken

budgemook wrote: »

Well like, I'm a big Evil Dead 2 fan...

ah you might enjoy then as there is a scene that references the Evil Dead movies as well!

Tony EH

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Just be aware of what your going to watch which is a hommage to low budget 80's horror movies! If that's not your thing then I suppose avoid.

...and not a very good one at that.

e_e

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Hobo with a shotgun saw this up in the new releases on US netflix brilliant low budget movie Rutger Hauer was excellent in his role, should have got an oscar nod

This was a nice gory surprise after the amazingly boring and hollow Machete.

emeraldstar

Saw Like Crazy last night. Pretty awful. The entire cinema was laughing at the painful cringy-ness all the way through. (I say 'entire' cinema - I don't think there were twelve people there.)

flanders1979

Nothing Personal 2009, on recommendation from another thread. v good, unusual film
Hall Pass, what I expected. Fake chow part was funny.

OldeCinemaSoz

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN

A curious hybrid of THE EXTERMINATOR
meets MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.

6/10

THE ROAD

It looks lovely and the angst tries to play on
the heartstrings but the only memorable bit is
in the cellar. :eek:

5/10

twirlagig

Was sick with a raging head cold all weekend, so had a couch weekend of movies!

Jaws - a big fave!

Falling Down, always worth a 2nd look... or 3rd... probably 10th in my case!

Apocalypto (Spelling?) - powerful

Crazy, Stupid Love - funny enough.

johnny_ultimate

Ah Netflix, you most damning of procrastination tools!

i. The Saddest Music in the World - strange but beguiling Guy Maddin film. If you want to see a film deeply in-tune with classical cinematic techniques (but with an utterly unique slant) this has far more than the surface level competence of The Artist. Isabella Rosselini holds a 'saddest music' world championship in recession era Winnipeg (Maddin loves his hometown!). It's hard to pin down, but there's elements of farce, melodrama, sports movie (!), homage and experimental film-making in here. Reminded me of a Murakami novel in that it can be hard to simply articulate the themes, but it powerfully resonates on various levels in spite of the abstraction and surrealism. Quite unlike anything else, really: the work of a fascinating film-maker.

ii. Dear Zachary - Finally got around to this. At the risk of sounding cynical, I did think the director was ever-so-slightly manipulative in his role as documentarian. But you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the story and intentions, and it's a shocking, emotional tale that deserves recounting. I could have done without the soundtrack attempting to 'guide' my emotions, but there are some moments that pack an emotional punch quite unlike any films I've seen recently (the final, extremely sad twist in the tale really adds emotional heft to an already powerful story). The story resonates so strongly that there's no need to help the audience along, but the director's personal relationship with the story shines brightly, even if it comes at the cost of anything resembling objectivity (the constant debate when it comes to documentary film-making, I guess!). An amazing, heartbreaking story. A pretty good documentary.

Sad Professor

I watched Dear Zachary the other night as well. Considering the project started out as a home video, I thought it was pretty incredible. The editing was very impressive and the director's anger at what happened is palpable. It plays out more like a thriller than a documentary, which is why, as others have said, it's best to go in blind and experience the twists and turns in the tale unspoiled. It's a shocking story to say the least.

Tonight I watched Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window. A very early and under-appreciated film noir. I had vague memories of seeing it years ago, but couldn't remember the details. It's beautifully shot and acted and very atmospheric as you'd expect from Lang. Unfortunately it's also got a silly 1940s censorship ending that's best ignored.

crazygeryy

We need to talk about kevin.

Absolutely brilliant.film of the year for me.and I would not put it in the horror genre as some people are doing.its disturbing to say the least but not a horror.tilda swinton deserves an oscar great performance.

johnny_ultimate

Sad Professor wrote: »

I watched Dear Zachary the other night as well. Considering the project started out as a home video, I thought it was pretty incredible. The editing was very impressive and the director's anger at what happened is palpable. It plays out more like a thriller than a documentary, which is why, as others have said, it's best to go in blind and experience the twists and turns in the tale unspoiled. It's a shocking story to say the least.

I'm still undecided whether the director's huge personal involvement in the story was a wholly good thing. On one hand, it creates an unusually impassioned perspective. But on the other I think it leads to a slightly skewed morality where everyone is either a saint or a devil. I don't think anyone would disagree that Turner was a deeply troubled woman, but I did think it vilified her without any attempt at understanding why. Same with some of Andrew's actions. Turner was painted - rightly, I'd imagine - as a stalker but the fact

that he fathered her child just before his death

was an angle I would have like to see explored. And I thought the rarest but most powerful moments was when the subjects spoke truly candidly. The father honestly recounting his

revenge fantasies

stands out as one of the more sobering, deeply human moments in the whole film.

You could certainly call the above nitpicking, and I can fully see the film-makers angle in approaching the story the way he did. It's more a tribute than a full on documentary, really. But while the lack of objectivity makes for a hugely affectionate and involving piece, it perhaps means it misses out on a few beats that could have made it even more powerful.

Sad Professor

The account of the case that the film presents is indeed very subjective and biased. But I'm fine with that because the film never claims to be anything other than a particular individual's perspective of what happened. There's no such thing as true objectivity in any historical account. Everyone is biased and it's better than the author/filmmaker admit that bias upfront and save us the hassle of having to figure out their angle. Such personal accounts are just as valuable as the more objective ones because they let us see how people really felt. I couldn't care less about what this film had to say about Turner or the Canadian legal system; it was the very honest emotional insight it provided into the family and friends of the victim that I found most interesting. Plus the fact that it managed to this in way that is actually very entertaining, which is what separates it from being just another true-crime documentary on the Discovery channel.

johnny_ultimate

I sort of disagree that the legal system stuff is uninteresting - I think it's what gives the film a more general relevancy and 'point' so to speak. What really gives it a push from personal letter to relevant public statement. But I do agree it's the human drama that is more involving.

More than anything, I think it's a film that needs to remain a one-off. While true objectivity is probably impossible to achieve, good documentary makers need to embrace multiple view points. It's what separates Errol Morris - and Tabloid is a recent stellar example of using multiple perspectives to tell an (ahem) 'true' story in a surprising, 'Rashomon-esque' way - from, say, Religiluous (a film whose perspective I generally agree with, but was taken aback by its childish selective editing). Dear Zachary is defined by the director's self-interest, but if anything but a small minority of documentary film-making was that way it would be an unwelcome trend.

I know it sounds cynical, but it's just one little aspect of an otherwise hugely involving film - lest I need to stress again that it was a fascinating achievement in many, many ways - that left a wee sour taste.

Precious1

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1601913/
Just saw "The Grey" with Lian Neeson and was bowled over. Read the bare minimum about it for fear of spoilers, and now am ready for the delight of reading some.
The part about "Let it wash over you, it's warm" choked me up badly. In a way it seemed very symbolic, was surreal, so do not look for much realism.
It is one of the most powerful, scary, and beautiful films I've seen.
Women are absent except for talk and the protagonist's brief flashbacks, yet they are the backbone of the men, along with the children we only glimpse.
The ultimate existential treat!