What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

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In a World (2013)
The notion of a film set in the mysterious world of those who voice trailers definitely got my interest and was what pulled me in; and while generally that's the template upon which the film's built, the setting could be transplanted into any male-dominated career choice and still work in its various themes. In essence it's a fairly standard story of a daughter trying to break out from a domineering father's shadow and forge her own path, despite his best attempts to derail it (albeit unwittingly in this case); the Hollywood elements bubble away, never really forcing themselves too much to the surface. That's true of a lot of the film really, various strands often feeling a touch half-baked. Every time it looked like it might head in an interesting or heavier direction, it pulled its punches, opting instead for a softer approach that didn't really lead anywhere in the end.

While I generally did enjoy it as a pleasant distraction, it was very much the archetypal indie 'dramady' - to a fault; it had a touch too much of the 'Juno's about it. Everyone on screen seemed so affably idiosyncratic it hurt; possessing a wit or sarcasm that ordinarily would make me run a mile rather than watch their kooky antics. To its credit, it didn't feel as puffed up and self-important in the way others of that type are. My persistence was also due to Lake Bell's own performance and her characters relationship with the father and her sister. I knew nothing of Bell going into the film and I saw enough good things to keep me interested in whatever she does next. Certainly as a comic performer she showed potential; it was refreshing to watch a female comic-actor performing so unselfconsciously as she did.

Nerdlingr

PunkFreud wrote: »

Punch-Drunk Love

Such a great movie. Must re-visit it again, especially with the passing of PSH.

LuckyLloyd

Punch Drunk Love makes me smile everytime. It's so utterly wonderful. Great turn from Philip Seymour Hoffman too if anyone wants an excuse to watch it.

e_e

"That's that, mattress man."

Shiraz 4.99

PunkFreud wrote: »

Punch-Drunk Love
Adam Sandler leading a P.T. Anderson movie? Does Anderson know what he's doing? He certainly does. Sandler, a man known for destroying cinema, has at least one sublime film on his filmography.

Happy Gilmore would like to question your assertion, but yes, you can burn the rest.

D'Agger

Warrior: Probably my fifth or 6th time watching it, loved it again. Fight scenes are well done, music and strong performances means it never fails to make the hairs stand on the back of your neck during certain scenes.


The Raid: Loved it, great fight scenes and a decent storyline to go with it. Will definitely recommend and watch again!

Birneybau

Watched "The Master" yesterday in honour of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.

A strange, mesmeric film, with 2 outstanding performances by the aforenamed and Joaquin Phoenix. Amy Adams also good, but not given enough really to compete with t'other two.

Paul Thomas Anderson is a special one.

krudler

Birneybau wrote: »

Watched "The Master" yesterday in honour of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.

A strange, mesmeric film, with 2 outstanding performances by the aforenamed and Joaquin Phoenix. Amy Adams also good, but not given enough really to compete with t'other two.

Paul Thomas Anderson is a special one.

Strange is right, it meanders along without any real plot but I found it gripping from start to finish, glad I went to see it in the cinema.

PunkFreud

Beauty and the Beast
Some of the musical numbers were beautifully choreographed, making the film that bit special. But the directors got too caught up with the new technology - allowing for more dynamic camera movements - that they ended up overusing it. More static scenes would have worked better

The Gaston scenes in the first two thirds of the movie were irritating and superfluous. I understand they were trying to build up the character, but it did not succeed; he remained one dimensional throughout. It was the gently growing love, between Belle and the Beast, that held the film together

I must admit that I was expecting a bit more, given that this was the start of the Disney animation renaissance. However is is well made, and on a par with the other animated classics of this period.

Capote
A dark portrayal of a self absorbed man, putting himself front and centre of all his work. I liked the thread of autobiographical versus non-autobiographical throughout, creating the internal conflict within Capote.

Hoffman has a muted yet manipulative performance. While not the best of his career, it is very much against type and fascinating to watch. Credit needs to go to Clifton Collins Jnr. for his humanising depiction of the murderer Perry. It's interesting how we grow to loathe Capote, while sympathise with Perry over the course of the film.

It didn't "wow" me as much as I would've like, but it did have some beautiful imagery.

LuckyLloyd

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Pandora's Promise (2013)

A very interesting look at the legacy and future of nuclear power. Some of this documentary was very surprising, particularly when natural background radiation is compared to nuclear fallout. Definitely worth viewing if you care about the negative and positive aspects of this divisive issue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_Eternity_(film)

I think you might like this one so, takes an angular look at the Nuclear issue.

ManOnFire

Lost In Translation : my second viewing of this one and was left feeling very 'meh' about the whole thing as I was the first time around. Meanders along quite slowly and found my attention wavering a bit. All in all an inoffensive movie and one I don't think il be returning to. One to add to the trade pile.

Schadenfreudia

"Flirting with Disaster" (1996)

Watchable and fairly funny...had't come across it before....some cast! Includes

Ben Stiller
Patricia Arquette
Téa Leoni
Mary Tyler Moore
George Segal
Alan Alda
Lily Tomlin

NyOmnishambles

Went to see American Hustle last night, haven't managed to get to the cinema in a while so will be catching up on some of the recent releaszes that are still available over the next little while

I very much enjoyed it, great performances all round, I was particularly impressed by Amy Adams, I haven't watched any of her other movies where she gives a more serious performance and she was captivating in this

Decuc500

Two disappointing films.

A Field In England was a shambolic mess, weird for the sake of it.
Four soldiers in a field during the English civil war tripping on mushrooms and looking for buried treasure.
It was meandering and made absolutely no sense, one of those films where there's no narrative, just a series of images and ideas and you can make your own mind up about the ending.

I also watched the Mexican film We Are What We Are.
I saw the American remake last year and thought it was fantastic so I checked out the original. Where the remake was atmospheric and chilling this was just drab and boring.
It was also disappointingly one of those cliched horror movies where characters make stupid decisions just to move the plot along. I expected better from such a well regarded film.

tunguska

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo(Fincher)

I think this is really under rated. The last 15 minutes seem a bit tacked on and out of synch with the rest of the film but all in all its a great movie. Rooney Mara is brilliant, that much is obvious but I think Daniel Craig puts in a really solid, no showy and charismatic performance. Photography is amazing aswell, really atmospheric.

Mickeroo

tunguska wrote: »

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo(Fincher)

I think this is really under rated. The last 15 minutes seem a bit tacked on and out of synch with the rest of the film but all in all its a great movie. Rooney Mara is brilliant, that much is obvious but I think Daniel Craig puts in a really solid, no showy and charismatic performance. Photography is amazing aswell, really atmospheric.

I enjoyed it too, it's far more cinematic than the original in how it looks.

ButtersSuki

You can (like me) like both versions (original Swedish (extended) and Fincher's)! It's not a competition!


My fear though is that they balls the Trilogy up be removing Craig (as is rumored) for parts II & III. :mad:

hefferboi

Watched A History of Violence last night. Really weird film in that the story was very good and so was Viggo Mortenson, but the rest of the acting was terrible I thought. The score was terrible too. Just found it really weird.

D'Agger

hefferboi wrote: »

Watched A History of Violence last night. Really weird film in that the story was very good and so was Viggo Mortenson, but the rest of the acting was terrible I thought. The score was terrible too. Just found it really weird.

Thought Ed Harris was fairly poor in that movie but liked it overall same as yourself

longshotvalue

watched Wolf of WallStreet last night, F**k it its a F**king ride of the highest order.. Most fun film ive seen in a while, litered with really funny comments sections etc..

the really serious business meeting about "lets just say darts" is hilarious..

Anyway great fun film..

johnny_ultimate

Night and Day - another gem from Hong Sang-soo. A panicked Korean painter flees to Paris after he's ratted out the police for smoking a joint (love the comically low stakes in this guy's films). There, he meets some old acquaintances and a young Korean student he's quickly smitten with, despite being married.

It hits the usual Sang-soo beats - awkward romance, a pretty scathing and self-depreciating exploration of modern masculinity, long conversations, unexpected dream sequences etc... The characters in this offering are more compelling and credible than usual, and Kim Young-Ho's hapless protagonist is the perfect mix of embarrassing and sympathetic. Paris provides a fresh perspective for Sang-soo's distinctive storytelling, and acts as an interesting contrast to In Another Country. Stylistically, it's as rock solid as ever: largely committed to a 'one scene, one cut' style of editing, there's much communicated through simple pans and zooms, helping enhance the drama and intimacy of the film.

At 145 minutes, there's a lot of comical tangents, subtle subplots and curious side characters. It's as laid back as one would expect from this director, but it's completely compelling and absolutely fascinating.

Judgement Day

"Crossfire" (1988) BBC 5-part TV mini series. Eamon Boland, Sean Caffrey, Tony Doyle, Hilary Reynolds and Denys Hawthorne.

An IRA bombing campaign in Britain is compromised and the Army Council considers the possibility that there’s a mole at the heart of their organization. Also trying to identify the mole is Freddie Ross (Eamon Boland) a computer expert on secondment from Special Branch to the RUC but he finds his efforts being blocked from within the security establishment. Plenty of plot twists and the movie doesn't flag until the last ten minutes or so. I thought it captured the bleak, pre-ceasefire NI landscape to a tee. Worth tracking down. 9/10

ButtersSuki

Judgement Day wrote: »

"Crossfire" (1988) BBC 5-part TV mini series. Eamon Boland, Sean Caffrey, Tony Doyle, Hilary Reynolds and Denys Hawthorne.

An IRA bombing campaign in Britain is compromised and the Army Council considers the possibility that there’s a mole at the heart of their organization. Also trying to identify the mole is Freddie Ross (Eamon Boland) a computer expert on secondment from Special Branch to the RUC but he finds his efforts being blocked from within the security establishment. Plenty of plot twists and the movie doesn't flag until the last ten minutes or so. I thought it captured the bleak, pre-ceasefire NI landscape to a tee. Worth tracking down. 9/10

Is that a dvd release JD? If so do you mind me asking where you picked it top as I'd definitely be interested ion this.

Judgement Day

PM sent.

The Black Oil

The Godfather. First full viewing. I suppose you're meant to call it a masterpiece, or something.

Shutter Island - Generally like it in the cinema, bit of a disappointing rewatch.

John Carter of Mars - I remember the headlines about this at the time, it was mentioned on the Today programme on Radio 4, ffs! Oh, and Stanton's naivety and ego were going on, too.

Well, I generally liked it, though it's perhaps likeable in a peculiar way. Runs a little too long, but they generally sell it.

The humans are the least interesting part, save for Carter and Dejah. The rest are just props and nothing more. Mark Strong, Bryan Cranston, Ciaran Hinds and Dominic West, I had no idea. Understandably, the alien blokes get more screen time, and are more interesting - how brilliant was the fat doggy? And Princess of Mars - now that's a title.

NyOmnishambles

Went to see Saving Mr Banks last night (Cineworld do a catch up on a recent release that is no longer showing on a Thursday, it was jammed)

I wasn't expecting much but this is a movie with so much heart that it is hard not to get caught up in it
Emma Thompson is excellent as P L Travers, Paul Giamatti has a small but important role which he excells at
Colin Farrell puts in a very touching performance as P L Travers father in flashbacks

All in all a lovely touching movie, helped of course if you are familiar with the Mary Poppins movie, very hard to leave the cinema not singing/humming Lets fly a kite

Judgement Day

The Black Oil wrote: »

The Godfather. First full viewing. I suppose you're meant to call it a masterpiece, or something.

Shutter Island - Generally like it in the cinema, bit of a disappointing rewatch.

John Carter of Mars - I remember the headlines about this at the time, it was mentioned on the Today programme on Radio 4, ffs! Oh, and Stanton's naivety and ego were going on, too.

Well, I generally liked it, though it's perhaps likeable in a peculiar way. Runs a little too long, but they generally sell it.

The humans are the least interesting part, save for Carter and Dejah. The rest are just props and nothing more. Mark Strong, Bryan Cranston, Ciaran Hinds and Dominic West, I had no idea. Understandably, the alien blokes get more screen time, and are more interesting - how brilliant was the fat doggy? And Princess of Mars - now that's a title.

Do I take it that you were less than impressed or something? The Godfather is a masterpiece, what's not to like?

"So the next day, my father went to see him; only this time with Luca Brasi. An' within an hour, he signed a release, for a certified check for $1000. [Kay: "How'd he do that?"] My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse. [Kay: "What was that?"] Luca Brasi held a gun to his head and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature, would be on the contract. That's a true story. That's my family, Kay, it's not me."
http://www.thegodfathertrilogy.com/gf1/gf1quots.html

The Black Oil

No, it was more that I'm bad at reviews. :P

tusk

NyOmnishambles wrote: »

Went to see Saving Mr Banks last night (Cineworld do a catch up on a recent release that is no longer showing on a Thursday, it was jammed)

I wasn't expecting much but this is a movie with so much heart that it is hard not to get caught up in it
Emma Thompson is excellent as P L Travers, Paul Giamatti has a small but important role which he excells at
Colin Farrell puts in a very touching performance as P L Travers father in flashbacks

All in all a lovely touching movie, helped of course if you are familiar with the Mary Poppins movie, very hard to leave the cinema not singing/humming Lets fly a kite

I thought the intro of the sad "chim chiminy" was fantastic altogether. So touching, but still you could sense there was a happiness somewhere there..

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

withnail and I

got sucked into a conversation with the flatmate during my favourite scenes, when they're driving down to the country but got to enjoy the rest

"I'm making time" still cracks me up



watched kikujiro as well after. I knew i'd seen it before but I remembered absolutely 0 about it, except for 1 or 2 scenes which I recognised instantly and remembered in full the moment i noticed what scene it was. not sure how that is meant to work but thanks brain. the reveal

that the mother had abandoned him and was living with her new family was heart breaking, really wasn't expecting that.

overall I quite liked it but I don't think it was that great a movie..just a nice sentimental couple of hours.