What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Bluftoni

All the cockpit stuff got a bit samey for me. Bow was marvellous and held it together, but if I remember, I think she wasn't in it for stretches, which I think hurt the movie.

What I assumed was my copy of Wings arrived this morning. Had no plans for the afternoon so made some lunch and sat down to watch it only inside the package wasn't a copy of Wings on Blu but rather a DVD of Paul McCartney and Wings.

e_e

But they were only the band The Beatles could have been!

e_e

e_e wrote: »

But they were only the band The Beatles could have been!

Don't get me wrong, Wings were a great band and Band on the Run is a classic and I wouldn't have minded if it was the recently re-released Blu but it's some crappy unofficial release that you'd find in a bargain bin.

e_e

Was only messing by quoting Partidge there, but yeah that's a shame.

johnny_ultimate

Bluftoni wrote: »

All the cockpit stuff got a bit samey for me. Bow was marvellous and held it together, but if I remember, I think she wasn't in it for stretches, which I think hurt the movie.

Yeah Bow was supposedly shoehorned into the movie at a late point in development. So she's effectively absent for huge stretches of time and has very little intersection with or even effect on the main plot, the romance kept separated through a few key sequences instead (including the bubble bit, which her performance helps make more tolerable). Almost felt distracting when that aspect came back into play. Still, Bow had such a screen presence, and can only imagine the 1920s audiences response to her several frame long 'nude' scene :pac:

e_e

e_e wrote: »

Was only messing by quoting Partidge there, but yeah that's a shame.

I know and tbh I've always felt that Wings deserve a far better reputation that they have. Everyone sees them as a poor mans Beatles but there was far less wankery than you got with The Beatles

Loughc

Barna77 wrote: »

And cyber sex chatrooms won't be the same hahha

At least now we know what you do in your spare time!

Barna77

Loughc wrote: »

At least now we know what you do in your spare time!

Hahaha



God forbid.

DazMarz

Falling Down 1993

Michael Douglas stars in this tale of one man who just wants to go home to his wife and daughter. But nothing is ever that simple.

William "D-FENS" Foster (Douglas) is recently divorced from his wife (the main reason being his explosive, violent temper), recently unemployed (he worked in the defence industry) and is on the verge of snapping. Life has dealt him a pretty bad hand and he is struggling to cope. He finally snaps while stuck in traffic on a boiling hot Los Angeles summer day. Abandoning his car in the middle of the traffic, D-FENS declares "I'm going home!".

Altercations with a Korean shop keeper and Hispanic thugs are the first to get in D-FENS' way; D-FENS objects to the Korean's price gouging, and ends up working over the man's shop with a baseball bat. When the Hispanic thugs threaten him, D-FENS lashes out with the bat again. He picks up a flick knife this time, to add to his arsenal. After the thugs crash their car while trying to shoot D-FENS, he acquires a bag that contains an Uzi, a TEC-9, a MAC-10, various pistols and knives. Now he has a proper arsenal.

Across town, LAPD Detective Sergeant Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is taking early retirement and is on his last day of work. He is incredibly hen-pecked by his demanding wife and is looked down upon by his colleagues and superiors as being too straight-laced (his Captain doesn't like him because he doesn't swear). But before he gets to go home on his final day, D-FENS comes crashing into his life, and it is up to Prendergast to stop him.

Further encounters with a panhandler, unhelpful fast food vendors, an abusive man who demands D-FENS get off a payphone, a Neo-Nazi military surplus store owner, old men golfing and lazy construction crews further cement D-FENS' anger and frustration at the world. Only now, he vents it through judicious use of his arsenal of automatic weaponry. But at the back of it, he is still just trying to get home to his daughter to see her on her birthday. He even buys her a gift en-route.

But with the LAPD closing in, D-FENS is running out of time...

This is billed as a crime-drama, but there are moments in it that are quite simply hysterically funny too. D-FENS lays waste to the Korean man's shop, battering merchandise he deems overpriced. He then leaves with a smile "It's been a pleasure frequenting your establishment," while the shop now looks like low-tide at the pier. The scenes in the Whammy-Burger and on the golf course are pure gold.

Michael Douglas is absolutely superb in his role as the maligned and angry Foster/D-FENS; the anger is always simmering beneath the surface. However, it is only when he is provoked that he reacts by whipping out the Uzi; although sometimes it is justifiable anger, when he is told he can't have breakfast in the restaurant and reacts thus, you get the feeling it's a bit much... but funny all the same.

What is fascinating about the Douglas character, as written and played, is the core of sadness in his soul. Yes, by the time we meet him, he has gone over the edge. But there is no exhilaration in his rampage, no release. He seems weary and confused, and in his actions he unconsciously follows scripts that he may have learned from the movies, or on the news, where other frustrated misfits vent their rage on innocent bystanders.

ButtersSuki

Love Falling Down - great review.

budgemook

Barna77 wrote: »

Her
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/?ref_=nv_sr_1

It was good, but maybe too long (126 minutes).

Some mixed reactions about it. I was thinking of all the Appleheads who love their little expensive phones when I started watching it. But got me thinking of how some people are so dependent on internet and computers, not just for entertainment. Think of those living in rural areas, with just a few people around them who'd would interact with other people miles away only via online (like online dating or chatrooms). Or even forums like this one.

Was thinking of something my parents said when I was home last christmas, it was how they hated when you get into a bus or a bar and everybody is engrossed looking down their phones. Got on the Luas today and only realised of that myself too....

Back on the movie, it all was so neat, bright and clean. Interesting use of colours and clothes.

And cyber sex chatrooms won't be the same hahha

A must watch.

But I can't stand Johansson's voice....

Funny that you/your parents compare buses and bars like that. Being on your phone on the bus is fine imo, kinda like having the headphones on. Sitting in a bar with your head stuck in the phone isn't great though, kinda like if you had headphones on in the bar!

MJ23

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Love Falling Down - great review.

Copy and paste I'd say.

Great film.

ButtersSuki

Haven't posted for a while but here's a quick synopsis of some of my recent viewings:

Carrie make with Chloe Grace Moretz and Julieanne Moore. Despite Moore's awful performance in this (and it's bad), I liked it way more than I thought I would. It is what it is - essentially an MTV-like re-imagining (not remake) of the DePalma classic, but it's not absolutely brutal as some would have you believe. CGM has true star quality IMO (and I say this despite not being a Kick Ass fan) and could be the next Jennifer Lawrence - there, I said it! I've seen a lot worse than this. A surprisingly entertaining 7/10

Gravity….hmmm. disappointing. Went to see it in the IMAX in 3D in Cineworld. Went away thinking the 3D was underutilized and the best part of he experience was the "prepare for your 3D experience" (or however they describe it) before the film started. Story I found somewhat meh, and the repeated space hopping went from being necessary to repetitive to ridiculous. I really don't see what the fuss was all about. A disappointing 6.5-7/10

The Wolf of Wall Street - a 2nd viewing on the big screen. Went to see something else and got my times mixed up so instead of going home i went for a second helping. Even better 2nd time around, with DiCaprio's performance being a career highlight for me. An easy 8/10, maybe even an 8.5.

johnny_ultimate

The General - I'd only ever seen a low-quality version of Buster Keaton's most famous film before (not long ago, at that), so seeing the new restoration on the big screen was genuinely like watching a whole new film.

I could gush at length about how Keaton is my favourite of all cinematic comedians (along with Jacques Tati), but on first watch I never warmed to The General the same way I did to, say, Sherlock or Steamboat Jr. Today, it sucked me right in. Keaton's choreography and intense physical performances - matched by those sad but charming eyes - are a joy to witness as always, and Keaton's films are above all examples of the poetry of motion. But he's such a brilliant filmmaker as well, along with his co-director Clyde Bruckman here. The camera is regularly a part of the joke, moving along with the train when needed or standing perfectly still to take in some of the film's more expansive (and not coincidentally more expensive) gags. The editing is perfect too, never lingering too long on a visual punchline and giving just the right amount of time for setup, delivery, payoff. No one has ever understood the art of telling a cinematic joke quite like Buster Keaton did, and all without the luxury of sound or colour.

The General is effectively just two long setpieces (a train chase, and then another train chase with the roles reversed) with some general (ho!) plot tying them together. But there's boundless creativity in the way it plays out, often revisiting earlier jokes with inspired new twists.

The new restoration, as one would hope, lends fresh life to this absolutely wonderful film. No doubt The General will continue to delight filmgoers for decades and centuries to come.

Bluftoni

Did you see The General in the cinema?

I bought the Elstree release of the movie a few years ago, and it felt very slowed down, and hurt my enjoyment of the movie.

I've since learned that this version was the European release of the film, and this was how viewers here saw it back in the 20s.

But I was used to the sped-up Silent comedy films of the era and The General didn't do it for me as a result.

I'm wondering what version was released in the cinema this year. To add to the confusion, the American version is 72-75 minutes, The European one is over 100 minutes but this year's release is in the middle at 89 minutes!

I asked the people in the IFI and they didn't know, so I decided not to go in case it was the European edition again.

So did it feel sped-up or sped-down? Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions.

P.S. Apparently there were no big time discrepancies with other major silent movies of the time.

johnny_ultimate

Yeah, IFI screening. It seemed more 'natural' than anything, neither notably slow or fast. It definitely seemed smoother than a lot of silent films I've seen, the ones with frame rates between 15-20 per second. I naturally can't give you an exact figure, but it was certainly in the general region of 24FPS, or at the very least in that general ballpark. It was I'm fairly sure closer to 80 minutes than 90, as I was outside the cinema less than 90 minutes after it started, and there was a handful of ads at the beginning.

Bluftoni

Many thanks. I might risk it so!

Sherlock Jr. is my favourite of Buster's by the way. It's tremendous fun.

johnny_ultimate

Yeah, I adore Sherlock Jr. It's the first film of his I saw and I actually sat there in a state of near disbelief at the imagination and energy on screen. The bike sequence is easily one of my favourites in all of cinema history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp5fTvEWdh4

DazMarz

MJ23 wrote: »

Copy and paste I'd say.

Great film.

Ah, give me a little credit!

Only the final paragraph is actually not my own writing. The rest is my own!

Mickeroo

Boy (watched on US netflix) - Boy tells the story of, well...a boy named Boy who forms elaborate fantasies about his absent father (played by writer/director Taika Waititi) only to have said father turn up out of the blue.

I had enjoyed Waititi's first film Eagle Vs Shark but there was no denying it was an uneven film overall, here however he finds the perfect balance between the lighthearted oddball humour and the more serious issues running underneath.

The film seems to have a Wes Anderson influence in some areas, particularly with the montages of Boy's fantasies, also the theme of absent fathers and sons is something which pervades most of Anderson's work so it's hard not to be reminded of it here (in a good way though). The film still manages to have it's own voice though and much of the humour and dialogue is very New Zealand-centric, plus 90% of the cast are amateur Maori actors.

Overall I really loved it, the first hour is very funny in places and as the tone shifts to a more serious one in the final act I found the film to be quite moving. James Rolleston is very good as the boy of the title and Waititi does a great job of making the waster father a likable character despite his flaws.

I see Waititi has a new film coming out later this year ( a comedy horror about vampires sharing a flat in Wellington), thanks to Boy it will now be highly anticipated by me at least!



Red Dog (Irish Netflix) - Not one for the cynics. Australian family film about a dog that unites a remote mining community in Australia which is apparently based on true events.

It doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything and it tries to tug on the heart strings as you might expect but at the same time I didn't find it overly twee and there are some genuinely funny and touching moments to be found. It's also very beautifully shot.

One to watch with the kids or if you're just not in the mood for something heavy.

Birneybau

DazMarz wrote: »

Ah, give me a little credit!

Only the final paragraph is actually not my own writing. The rest is my own!

Why didn't you mention that in your review then? What, are you Shia Laboef?

johnny_ultimate

Stranger by the Lake - Absolutely superb thriller from Alain Guiraudie, spending a week or so among the regulars of a gay cruising spot (a beach and the woods beside the eponymous lake). A violent act has a major impact on these men, particularly our protagonist Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps). It's a masterclass in quiet tension building and paranoia, wayward looks and lurking figures employed to create this captivating sense of unease. It's also a romance, albeit one with a palatable sense of danger and risk.

The characters - all male - are affectionately drawn, all with their own intriguing traits and motivations for being where they are. But there's also an enigmatic edge to most of them, and altogether they form a sort of non-traditional community, full of friendships, tensions and secrets.

The sexual content is perhaps even more frank and explicit than the more controversial Blue is the Warmest Colour, but the film is admirably intimate and honest all-in-all. The cruising area and its visitors makes for an ideal setting for such a compelling contemporary thriller (Hitchcock and Polanski comparisons aren't unwarranted), and it's an intelligent and expertly controlled film.

TerrorFirmer

Lone Survivor. Based on a true story, of which I have to admit I had no prior knowledge, the movie is a gritty no holds barred account of an occurrence if Afghanistan that is quite evidently given away by the title of the movie. All in all, however, it's a great watch, quite graphic, but nonetheless deserving of anyone's attention.

DazMarz

I'll make sure to reference and include a bibliography in all my future "reviews" on here... Make use of some of the stuff I used in uni...

And I only wish I could pull mots like Shia LeBoeuf does!!!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Prometheus

Let me preface this by saying I've never seen any of the original Alien films :eek: so I wasn't expecting anything from this. I remember all the hoopla over it's marketing campaign and people analyzing every second of footage from the trailers and what not. None of that meant a jot to me. So basically I was going in expectation free.

I enjoyed it for what it was. I should probably have also prefaced this with "I don't watch a lot of sci-fi films either" so again maybe it's all been done before but for me it was relatively new. I liked the basic plot idea, they didn't really answer any of the questions there though, but clearly they were setting up for a sequel. Visually it was pretty great, not too much CGI and where it was used it worked well. I loved the scene of David standing in the star map thing. Lovely.

Problems I had with it...

1 - Noomi Rapace's accent. Was she supposed to be English as the child in her dream was? Or was she supposed to be a bit of a gypsy with bits of different accents? It felt like she was trying to be just English but it was all over the place. I have a thing about accents though so this probably just annoyed me.

2 - They killed

Charlize Theron off!! How dare they! What I was most interested in was the interaction between her character and David. Clearly she resented the crap out of him and he seemed well aware of it and seemed to take some pleasure (if a robot is capable of that) out of flaunting his status as #1 son. Theron and Fassbender are great actors and the few scenes they shared were so many levels above most of the other interactions between characters. I could have watched a whole movie of just the two of them. So it really annoyed me when they killed her off, we could have had a sequel of her and David flying around space resenting each other
The fact that they didn't explore that relationship a bit more made Theron's character pretty pointless really.

3 - And this was the one that really took me out of the movie.... when

Vickers and Shaw are running from the crashing ship near the end, and it's falling in exactly the direction you'd expect something of that shape to fall.... they keep running in the direction it's falling in. Why not go left or right and get out of it's way? Position yourself in the middle of the semi circle so even when it stops and falls over sideways you're not standing under it!

I realise how silly that sounds but it really did take me out of the film completely.

But all in all I liked it

MilanPan!c

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Prometheus

Let me preface this by saying I've never seen any of the original Alien films :eek: so I wasn't expecting anything from this. I remember all the hoopla over it's marketing campaign and people analyzing every second of footage from the trailers and what not. None of that meant a jot to me. So basically I was going in expectation free.

I enjoyed it for what it was. I should probably have also prefaced this with "I don't watch a lot of sci-fi films either" so again maybe it's all been done before but for me it was relatively new. I liked the basic plot idea, they didn't really answer any of the questions there though, but clearly they were setting up for a sequel. Visually it was pretty great, not too much CGI and where it was used it worked well. I loved the scene of David standing in the star map thing. Lovely.

Problems I had with it...

1 - Noomi Rapace's accent. Was she supposed to be English as the child in her dream was? Or was she supposed to be a bit of a gypsy with bits of different accents? It felt like she was trying to be just English but it was all over the place. I have a thing about accents though so this probably just annoyed me.

2 - They killed

Charlize Theron off!! How dare they! What I was most interested in was the interaction between her character and David. Clearly she resented the crap out of him and he seemed well aware of it and seemed to take some pleasure (if a robot is capable of that) out of flaunting his status as #1 son. Theron and Fassbender are great actors and the few scenes they shared were so many levels above most of the other interactions between characters. I could have watched a whole movie of just the two of them. So it really annoyed me when they killed her off, we could have had a sequel of her and David flying around space resenting each other
The fact that they didn't explore that relationship a bit more made Theron's character pretty pointless really.

3 - And this was the one that really took me out of the movie.... when

Vickers and Shaw are running from the crashing ship near the end, and it's falling in exactly the direction you'd expect something of that shape to fall.... they keep running in the direction it's falling in. Why not go left or right and get out of it's way? Position yourself in the middle of the semi circle so even when it stops and falls over sideways you're not standing under it!

I realise how silly that sounds but it really did take me out of the film completely.

But all in all I liked it

You're so lucky you haven't because if you had, you'd realise that

Prometheus is a stinking pile of ****.

Mickeroo

I think Rapace just used her normal everyday accent for the role?

Two amazon packaged arrived this morning, the first contained Dark Star, Fast and Furious 6 and sadly a copy of the remake of The Talking of Phelam One Two Three. For the second time in a week amazon have shipped me the wrong item and rather than sit down and watch the classic Water Matthau film I instead had the rather generic and banal remake. Still I was a little optimistic about package two as I had no idea what was in it as I'd got no dispatch email so assumed that it was my replacement copy of Wings. Was quite surprised to find that it contained the Blu-Ray of Filth which I ordered way back when I missed it in the cinema and then promptly forgot about.

Easily the best Irvine Welsh adaptation since Trainspotting, which really doesn't say all that much when you consider that Ecstasy and The Acid House were both pretty terrible. Filth is a dark, depraved and rather funny tale that follows the misadventures of a copper suffering from bipolar, multiple personality disorder, drug addiction and no doubt a dozen other illness best filed under mental health.

McAvoy is absolutely fantastic and while he's proven himself a capable actor in the past, here he delivers a performances for the ages. His ability to go from calm and lucid to balls to the walls insane in the blink of an eye is astonishing to watch. He has a number of great moments in the film but the best has to be his phone call to Bunty which is just a wonderful piece of depravity that showcases just how much range he has as an action. The rest of the cast is pretty much a whose who of the best British and Scottish talent working today. Eddie Marsan delivers another of his sniveling losers which at this stage he could do in his sleep. Jamie Bell goes against type and delivers one of the most watchable performances in quite some time. There's something strangely uplifting about just how pathetic a character he his.

Broadbent is less successful thought that's more to do with his scenes than performances. The films tonal shifts are both it's most satisfying and disappointing element. Throughout the first half the use of hallucinations and nightmares fell awkward and distracting and have no real bearing on the plot. They feel like the director showing off and while they do come into their own during the latter half of the film but early on they drag. Filth feels very much like a film in search of a broader canvas.

No doubt made on a low budget the film feels intimate in a which that does the film a disservice. There's no real sense of scope and while the film is one of 2013's most interesting and fun, one can't help but feel that with a bit more money and a more adventurous approach that this could really have been something exceptional. Still, Filth is a bloody good time and features some rather memorable imagery and an exceptional performance from McAcoy. Filth is strangely melancholic and life affirming while at the same time being bat **** crazy in a way we rarely see.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Mickeroo wrote: »

I think Rapace just used her normal everyday accent for the role?

I just read on the trivia bit on the Prometheus page of imdb that she worked with a dialogue coach everyday on set to get the closest to an English accent she was capable of Not that close, obviously.

Apparently Shaw was originally supposed to be played by Theron but she had to drop out, then she became available again but they'd already recast. Shame, then we would have got Fassy and Theron alone in space