What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Tony EH

I sort of half watched this a while back and enjoyed what I saw. But, I'll have to look at it again properly.

I understand that it got booed by a substantial amount of the audience at Cannes. Christ knows why, it certainly didn't deserve booing and there's been praise for many arguably worse films shown there.

As someone said, if David Lynch had directed 'Only God Forgives', he would have walked away with another Palme d'Or.

e_e

Most misunderstood film of the year, to be sure.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i'd like to watch only god forgives but.... ryan gosling

nope

poundapunnet

Zack and Miri Make a Porno I was hungover, it was cold, I just wanted something silly and brainless to go "haaaaaaaaah" at, it wasn't even up to that task. There was an entire joke (I think it was supposed to be a joke) based around the fact that

a character played by Brandon Routh is gay. He used to be Superman! And now he's playing a gay guy!! Geddit??

. Seth Rogen was doing his usual phlegmy obscenities, a few bints were standing around looking pretty, Craig Robinson's wife was a sassy bitch and he could dance (coz he's black!! Geddit??), everyone was sniggering into their hockey jerseys about sex and Star Wars and everything turned out about as soppy as you'd expect. **** Kevin Smith, seriously. Jesus. 2/10

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

There's an interview in this month's Empire with Oliver Stone and he claims to have met a man who was involved in the assassination. He wouldn't say anymore but said he might write about it one day. He sounds a bit mental to be honest.

Oliver Stone is the king :-)

My old man is in Washington this week laying the wreath at JFK's grave for the anniversary, he was the Irish crossing guard at the funeral all those years ago....

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/11-members-of-37th-irish-army-cadet-class-pay-tribute-to-president-john-f-kennedy-1.1607320

Fysh

catallus wrote: »

BerberianSoundStudio: I like Toby Jones. It was interesting watching him in this. The film had a few interesting ideas but never really gets past the idea of conveying mood. Weird stuff for the sake of being weird, really.

To be fair, it is effectively a love letter to sound engineering in film, an oft-under-appreciated aspect of film making. Describing it as "weird for the sake of weird" is unfair in that it's missing a large part of the point of the film. Now, I think it does lose the run of itself slightly at the end (I liked how it closes, myself, but I understand why others felt it to be a weak ending) and if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work - but I think it's important to note that, weird though some of Berberian Sound Studio is, it's far from being Eraserhead. (And I liked Eraserhead too! But it's another one of those things where I can see what others might find frustrating or just plain bad about it.)

Baked.noodle

Gladiator (2000)

Just finished watching this on Blu-ray. Had seen it years before. Great overall, even if the story is a bit whimsical. Soundtrack is great too. Glad I watched it again.

upstairs for coffee

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I thought he was kind of redeemable as what he was trying to do was for the good of everyone, he wasn't just looking for personal power. I felt most sympathy for King Christian though. He was just a pawn for everyone else to use as they pleased, even Mads ended up manipulating and using him.

My problem was that he enforced his ideology through the manipulation of King Christian exactly as the nobility did which is a negative. An ideological reform should have openness and clarity? He withdraws free speech - you can speak freely just so long as you say the right things. He has a scatter gun, excitable approach to enshrining new laws that keeps pace with his growing ego. He is a poor politician. He had the tools to utilise and ensure productive change had he been more tactful. His failure led Denmark back to the dark ages.

Or am I being overly harsh?

delbertgrady

The Signalman (1976)
Exceptional short film starring Denholm Elliott, based on a Charles Dickens story. A lone signalman on an isolated railway line is tormented by a ghostly spectre. Best watched late at night for full, subtly spooky effect. Available to watch in its entirety on You Tube, it is a highlight of the recently re-released BBC/BFI Ghost Stories for Christmas box set, which also includes the equally impressive Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), which I think someone mentioned on this thread a few months ago.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

upstairs for coffee wrote: »

My problem was that he enforced his ideology through the manipulation of King Christian exactly as the nobility did which is a negative. An ideological reform should have openness and clarity? He withdraws free speech - you can speak freely just so long as you say the right things. He has a scatter gun, excitable approach to enshrining new laws that keeps pace with his growing ego. He is a poor politician. He had the tools to utilise and ensure productive change had he been more tactful. His failure led Denmark back to the dark ages.

Or am I being overly harsh?

No, I get what you're saying and you're right. I just found him more naive than anything else. He sort of fell into the position and I don't think was going into the job with the intentions of doing all he did. It just sort of took off and he didn't have to put much effort into it initially, but then when things kicked off he wasn't prepared to deal with it all. His own fault, of course, but I still think there were some redeemable things about him.

Judgement Day

delbertgrady wrote: »

The Signalman (1976)
Exceptional short film starring Denholm Elliott, based on a Charles Dickens story. A lone signalman on an isolated railway line is tormented by a ghostly spectre. Best watched late at night for full, subtly spooky effect. Available to watch in its entirety on You Tube, it is a highlight of the recently re-released BBC/BFI Ghost Stories for Christmas box set, which also includes the equally impressive Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), which I think someone mentioned on this thread a few months ago.

I have it on DVD - very atmospheric. Dickens was almost killed in a famous train crash at Staplehurst in England in 1865 and had another, less well known, near-miss on a visit to Ireland some years later.

Birneybau

The Iceman (2012)

Michael Shannon is great, but not in this.

Ooh, there's Artie Bucco. There's David "Porntache" Schwimmer. There's James Franco for literally a minute. There's a man with a slightly crispy mask for a face (Ray Liotta). There's the dude from "The Goonies".

T.v. movie of the week (as if made by H.B.O., who, I know made a documentary about Kuklinski).

Herb Powell

Just saw a sneaky screening of "Inside Llewyn Davis"...........in German. Can't wait to watch it in English!

johnny_ultimate

Leviathan - the kind of intense cinematic experience that will have many viewers reaching for a stiff drink afterwards. A beautifully nightmarish documentary that, through extraordinary visuals and sound design, gives uncomfortably intimate access to the actions on North American fishing vessels and the wild seas they travel across. Using the language of the motion picture in invigorating and experimental ways, it's a fascinating portrait of 'men at sea'. From a stunning, super-extended opening POV shot of one fisherman hauling in nets to scenes of visceral fish guttings to sequences where the camera dives underwater to others where the trawler crew simply relax & take a break, it's a visual poem and insightful docu all-in-one.

During its most breathtaking sequences - including its crazed finale - it's like an abstract horror film, and we could implicate the sea, the storms, the ship, the people, the fish as the eponymous sea creature. It could also be seen as something of an environmentally conscious film, shining a light on the aggressive but strangely poignant relationship between man and nature (interestingly, the final credits are dedicated to the many named trawlers lost at sea).

The cinematography is impressively inventive, but it's the sound that makes the whole thing complete. Rarely has the tinny, distorted sound of digital recordings been used so effectively. It's a fantastically nightmarish soundscape that avoids music, instead using the roar of the sea and the grinding of machinery to make the viewer / listener squirm. It's an aural assault in the best possible way, and it was a relief to emerge into the comparative calm of Friday night Dublin! The film is almost dialogue free, and the conversations there are are generally heavily muffled, sometimes incomprehensible - it just adds to the sense of hypnotic chaos. This is how you do non-narrative cinema in a truly unique way, and how to use basic, rough-and-ready technology as an asset rather than a limitation.

Throughout, I was regularly thinking 'gosh, this is just like an incredibly experimental episode of Deadliest Catch'. Therefore I was delighted when one multi-minute shot focuses only on a sleepy fisherman taking his break while watching a certain Discovery Channel programme about the Bering Sea

The GoPro camera used might look grainy on a big screen, struggling with the near constantly low light. But you still must see this in a cinema, and let the beautiful nightmare consume you.

GAAman

Birneybau wrote: »

The Iceman (2012)

Michael Shannon is great, but not in this.

Ooh, there's Artie Bucco. There's David "Porntache" Schwimmer. There's James Franco for literally a minute. There's a man with a slightly crispy mask for a face (Ray Liotta). There's the dude from "The Goonies".

T.v. movie of the week (as if made by H.B.O., who, I know made a documentary about Kuklinski).

Not to mention they left out and changed significant key parts to his story in an attempt (I can only imagine) to make him more likeable to the viewer. If you read the book (You should read the book!) it is almost like a different mans story!

Also you left out Captain America and his spray bottle! :pac:

mike65

Choke (2008) - Sam Rockwell is dysfunction so is mother Anjelica Huston (and just about everyone else). Brisk serio-comic drama which just misses on being great rather than good.

johndoe99

watched 'Invasion of the body Snatchers' (1978), arrows latest blu-ray release last night. Years since i've seen it. Like how they built the suspense up.

Judgement Day

johndoe99 wrote: »

watched 'Invasion of the body Snatchers' (1978), arrows latest blu-ray release last night. Years since i've seen it. Like how they built the suspense up.

Great ending too!

Tony EH

Easily one of the few cases where the remake was far superior than the original.

Baked.noodle

Secret Window (2004)

Yet another Stephen King story. Johnny Depp is an understated writer with a mystery to solve. The story becomes a little predictive but overall the performances are strong and the film is enjoyable. Nice to see Depp not overdoing it. Good fun. 7/10.

pixelburp

Last Days on Mars (2013)
An utterly derivative Sci-Fi Horror that showed initial promise before descending into a by-the-numbers zombie flick. I was surprised to see it was part-funded by the Irish Film Board, because I don't recall this appearing in the cinemas, though it is available on VOD. Throughout the flick I couldn't shake the feeling I had seen all this before - and I don't mean the comparisons with The Thing, which are also there - and I realised where after I'd finished; it was nothing more than a rip-off of a Dr. Who story from a couple of years ago, "Waters of Mars".

Sorceror (1977)
A forgotten film of William Friedkin, which is perhaps a shame as I think it deserves as much praise as his more famous works. It's a second adaptation of the novel 'Wages of Fear' (I'm not entirely sure what the reasoning for the title was, as it must surely have put many off on release; being released alongside Star Wars didn't help either mind you) On paper, it's a fairly simple thriller about 4 men transporting unstable nitro-glycerine across the mountains of a fictional South American country.

The film takes its time though, setting the backstories of these men, as well as their reasons for taking on this suicidal job. The investment is worth it because once the trucks start rolling the tension becomes palpable, never letting up for one second - the scene on a collapsing bridge is positively nerve-shredding and it was so convincing, it beggars belief how it was filmed at all. It also helps that you sense this was a gruelling production for the 4 actors - their performances are excellent in conveying the grubby despair and doom hanging over them, though knowing Friedkin's reputation I suspect their exhausted expressions were genuine. I was pretty wrecked by the end myself.

Jimmy Iovine

Turned on the tele and this classic was on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imgD7T7Tn1E

DazMarz

Air Force One (1997)

I wanted something entertaining to watch. A thriller, an actioner and something with a bit of violence and hyperbole thrown in. So I looked no further.

After the Americans and the Russians do an extraordinary rendition (before it was cool) on a rogue Kazakh pseudo-Soviet dictator, a group of ultra-nationalist Russian terrorists execute a well-planned hijacking of Air Force One as it is en route back to America from Moscow. The terrorists view the deposed Kazakh dictator as the one person who will make Mother Russia great again (despite being a genocidal lunatic with a nuclear arsenal).

In the initial shootout between the Secret Service and the tooled up Russians, President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) is apparently secreted into a hidden escape pod and is sent away to safety. The leader of the terrorists Ivan Korshonuv (Gary Oldman) is understandably a bit miffed at this setback and issues an ultimatum to the American Government; release his leader, or he will execute one hostage every 30 minutes (the hostages include many high-ranking members of the US Government, along with the First Lady and the President's daughter).

But James Marshall is no ordinary President; he is SUPER PRESIDENT. Well, he is a Vietnam veteran with a Medal of Honor pinned to his chest. In true Die Hard-fashion, Marshall begins a one-man war aboard his plane to fight the terrorists, save his family and ultimately save the day.

Yes, the plot is overblown and silly, but it is all done so well. The action is frenetic and does not let up; from the opening salvo of the capture of the dictator by Special Forces, to the gunfights aboard Air Force One, to the tense moments aboard the flight as the President evades the baddies, it is all done so well.

Gary Oldman is worthy of a special mention. He is at his snarling, screaming, murderous and most demented best here. Chameleon-like, he switches from affable, friendly Russian reporter to dead-eyed, cold, lethal terrorist in a heartbeat. Never has he looked quite so sinister as the fanatical zealot for whom America is the ultimate evil who ruined his country and he so dearly wants to make them pay. His little speech to the Vice-President (Glenn Close) is bone chilling: "What arrogance to think you could ever understand my intentions... What do I want? When Mother Russia becomes one great nation again... When the capitalists are dragged from the Kremlin and shot in the streets... When our enemies run and hide at the mention of our name and America begs our forgiveness... On that great day of deliverance; you will know what I want...".

The supporting cast sports some big names: Glenn Close, William H. Macy, Paul Guilfoyle, Xander Berkley, Dean Stockwell, Philip Baker Hall and Jurgen Pronchow all put in turns. Glenn Close is excellent as the embattled Vice President, struggling to keep control of the situation from the overbearing Secretary Of Defence (Stockwell).

Undeniably ridiculous overall, but wonderful, brilliant, easy-on-the-grey-matter entertainment. Essentially, it is (as I alluded to earlier) Die Hard on a plane, and this means it is just ass-kicking and shooting for a few hours. And that ain't a bad thing...

Tony EH

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

Turned on the tele and this classic was on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imgD7T7Tn1E

Yoots...

:cool:

Jimmy Iovine

Tony EH wrote: »

Yoots...

:cool:

Nearly cramping up from laughing at the cross examinations.

"I'm done with this guy."

barone

gravity in 3d big screen.. films gotta be good to keep you involved when there is mostly only 1/2 person's on screen during whole movie

very good,overhyped but still very good.

capt phillips.

hanks should win another oscar for this one,tense,engaging..excellent acting. 9/10

Bullseye1

Savages 5/10. Some pretty violent stuff even if left to the imagination by Stone. At most a rental if you want to see what Stone has been doing with himself these days. The Blake Lively talk over was a poor decision as well as some of the casting choices.

Duggy747

The Lone Ranger

Tonally, it's a mess, as it couldn't decide on what it wanted to be and it is quite long clocking in at 2.5 hours. That wouldn't bother me except for the fact there is a notable lull in the middle that could've been shaved off without sacrificing the plot at all.

Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the climatic sequence when the theme tune kicks in and it becomes a complete blast ensuring the film goes out with an almighty bang. Was one of the most funnest and OTT action sequences I've seen in a long while.

The humour, for the most part, worked (I loved the joke at the end) and it's an unusually violent film that we don't get to see much these days from Disney but really helped the movie pack a punch in it's shootouts. Visually, it's a beauty of a movie with many, many subtle nods to westerns of yesteryear that would go unnoticed to people not familiar with those movies.

Really did not deserve the absolute battering it got from critics, it's flawed and overlong but I had more fun with this than a lot of other recent critically-acclaimed blockbusters like Pacific Rim which was a good action movie smothered in thick Hollywood cheese. I'll remember Lone Ranger more fondly down the line than that film, for example.

Fysh

Don Jon: a very funny directorial debut from Joseph Gordon-Levitt that feels in some ways like a complementary film to 500 Days Of Summer. It's well put together, the performances are great, and given the overall narrative involved it avoids that all-too-common issue of turning saccharine in the third act. Well worth checking out.

The Europa Report: a good, though not great, piece of sci-fi about a manned expedition to the Europa moon in pursuit of signs of alien life. One of the better uses of found footage (the structure and presentation reminded me in a good way of The Tunnel) and a good score slightly let down by a script that relies more heavily than it should do on stupidity and lack of planning from people where these traits strain credulity very badly. It's still one of the better pieces of science fiction about manned space expeditions, but I had hoped for something great with this one.

The Last Stand: this was pretty disappointing, given the director's pedigree. I was hoping for something dementedly brilliant with the same tone and pace as The Good, The Bad, The Weird, but what we got was effectively Con-Air - Starring Ahnold Schwarzenegger. As a fairly dumb Friday Night movie it's alright, but it could have been something much more interesting. As it is, the closest we get to the demented oddness I'd hoped for is Johnny Knoxville's weapon-collecting oddball character, who gets far too little screentime to carry the film. It loses points for a dreadfully po-faced script and over-use of CGI blood (particularly since there's one scene where they obviously use squibs instead and it's much more effective, which just reinforces how cheap the rest of the scenes look). Worth a watch if you want something brainless, but I wouldn't seek it out as a pay-per-view or buy-the-DVD watch. Catch it on Netflix or borrow it from a friend.

Seedy Arling

I saw Gravity in 2D last week. It was alright. I dont think i'd ever be going in to space with Sandra Bullock though. She hadnt the foggiest clue of what she should have been doing up there at the start and panicked the whole time.

The whole

evolution of man

thing at the end was a bit obvious as well.