What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

briany

White Noise - Stars Michael Keaton as a bereaved man, in a turtleneck, whose grief turns to action when he discovers EVP, a method by which some claim you can communicate with the deceased.

Not as bad as some of the ratings would suggest. The main problem that it has is that it's a 'big Hollywood' film that tries to be about a small, esoteric subject meaning that it exaggerates some things, annoying those interested in EVP, and tries to build an atmosphere of brooding suspense in the first hour or so, possibly annoying those who just want a slab of scarysexyaction. In trying to do both, it doesn't do either particularly well but I found it pretty enjoyable all the same. I suppose it depends on what scares you as much as anything.

johnny_ultimate

The Innkeepers - Ti West's follow-up to House of the Devil. Same old-fashioned, slow-burning thrills, although now more explicitly supernatural. Many will find this film dull and narcoleptically paced. However, I appreciated it as a solid, unpretentious and atmospheric genre film. Marrying mumblecore sensibilities with a straight-up ghost story is an unusual mix, but the slow & steady pace conjures up a sense of dread, the odd creepy scare and an excellent climax / conclusion. While the film is identifiably a work of Mr. West, it won't be accused of innovation or originality. It's unashamedly generic - warts (string soundtrack, weird basements etc...) and all. This is both a strength and weakness.

I hesitate to recommend it wholeheartedly, or even halfheartedly - this film has and will prove divisive. Even enthusiasts would likely concede this is not a film deserved of hyperbole and superlatives. Fans of House of the Devil should feel right at home though, and if you manage to tune yourself into the film's unusual pacing & proudly retro tone you may find yourself feasting on The Innkeeper's very specific treats.

Sugarlumps

Prometheus – Borefest.
Pet Cemetery 2 – Fairly entertaining film.
Friday The 13th VI – Loved it.
Hellraiser – Still get a kick from it.

Tipsy McSwagger

No Way Out starring Kevin Costner. One of the worst films I have seen in a long time.

D'Agger

The Other Guys:

Had never seen it and loved it, needed a laugh and wasn't let down

FortuneChip

Caprica wrote: »

Another Earth
Really enjoyed this movie. It didn't progress the way I expected, you never get to see the other earth, but I was always wondering where it was going. It built to a surprising end. I liked the lead actress.

Check out her other lead performance in "Sound Of My Voice". I preferred Another Earth, but it's an interesting movie
She's a very talented lass, and based on some interviews I've seen with her, she seems a smart girl too

Mike Litoris

Sugarlumps wrote: »

Prometheus – Borefest.

Pet Cemetery 2 – Fairly entertaining film.
Friday The 13th VI – Loved it.
Hellraiser – Still get a kick from it.

:eek:

crazygeryy

this is England. its a good solid movie but not as good as i wanted it to be if that makes sense.

sinister.
i was so looking forward to this. again i expected it to be brilliant. it wasn't it was just good .if your a horror fan go for it it's worth the admission fee.

FortuneChip

crazygeryy wrote: »

this is England. its a good solid movie but not as good as i wanted it to be if that makes sense.

Well, it's considered to be Shane Meadows "Masterpiece" and given how good Dead Man's Shoes & Romeo Brass are, you would have high expectations.

Very good movie though, super soundtrack.

crazygeryy

FortuneChip wrote: »

Well, it's considered to be Shane Meadows "Masterpiece" and given how good Dead Man's Shoes & Romeo Brass are, you would have high expectations.

Very good movie though, super soundtrack.

yes the soundtrack is excellent and dead man s shoes i really enjoyed.

johnny_ultimate

Failan - Engaging Korean drama. The story of a Chinese immigrant Failan (Cecilia Cheung) who moves to Korea and marries hapless gangster Kang-Jae (Oldboy's Min-sik Choi) for a green card. The unusual twist is the two never meet. The result is an unusual structure that jumps back and forth chronologically, focusing on the two characters separately. It's a well-made, emotional tale, and the two lead performances are absolutely excellent - Choi as an obnoxious yet soft-hearted character, and Cheung as a fragile young woman lost in translation. The odd bond between the two is convincing, and leads to bittersweet insight, as well as tragedy. Director Hae-sung Song keeps the focus squarely on the characters, with stylistic cuts signifying narrative jumps. The occasional lapse into sentimentality and a few cheeky contrivances only slightly damage what is a smart, uncompromising and well-acted drama.

The film is loosely based on the same novel as Shunji Iwai's Love Letter, but TBH I thought there were more similarities with Chang-dong Lee's Green Fish. Also, the marketing materials for the film - the poster and the DVD cover both manufacturing images of the two protagonists together - are amusingly misleading, suggesting generic romance when it is anything but.

livinsane

Watched L.I.E. with a fantastic performance from a young Paul Dano, and Brian Cox as good as always. Basically a "coming of age" movie exploring the darker side of youth but with an interesting ending. Well worth a watch.

Judgement Day

"Knight and Day" (2010) - flicked onto by accident tonight for 10 minutes - Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Awful, awful sludge. Plotless bang, bang rubbish with one of the worst actors on the block -10. Only another 7 days and I've done nothing about Saorview.

charlie_says

Last Ride (2009)

Excellent and beautiful Australian drama about a young boy and his da driving across the Australian wilderness fleeing the law.

Hugo Weeving (the guy who is know for being Agent Smith in the Matrix) leads engagingly as a troubled man with a temper but a loving father. The young boy actor has a brilliant performance and probably will go on to have a great career.

Subtle soundtrack, stunning visuals - it really is a treat to look at and solid performances from all in it. One of the better films I have seen this year. I only heard about it now, surprised it went under my radar.

Highly recommend 9/10

jefreywithonef

The Station Agent. Wryly humorous drama about a dwarf who moves to a new town and just wants to be left alone, only to eventually develop a friendship with two locals. I thought it was very good, well-acted and a little heart-tugging. Reminded me of Garage and A Scene at the Sea, probably because of its slow pace but also because of how engaging the main characters are.

Professional Griefer

Monday we watched Idiocracy, thought it was decent enough. Gotta love that Terry Crews. Afterwards watched Existenz(again), really like this movie.

And tonight we watched Boogie Nights, which was a very good film as well.

krudler

jefreywithonef wrote: »

The Station Agent. Wryly humorous drama about a dwarf who moves to a new town and just wants to be left alone, only to eventually develop a friendship with two locals. I thought it was very good, well-acted and a little heart-tugging. Reminded me of Garage and A Scene at the Sea, probably because of its slow pace but also because of how engaging the main characters are.

Love that movie, one of the better mumblecore films. Not much happens but the character interaction makes it well worth watching, all three leads are excellent.

johnny_ultimate

krudler wrote: »

Love that movie, one of the better mumblecore films. Not much happens but the character interaction makes it well worth watching, all three leads are excellent.

[pedant] The Station Agent isn't a mumblecore film [/pedant]

livinsane

Watched Out Of Sight, Good show. Great cast, particularly loved Don Cheadle's character. I didn't think the freeze frame trasition between scenes worked though - just looked odd. I kept thinking the dvd was skipping.

krudler

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

[pedant] The Station Agent isn't a mumblecore film [/pedant]

Isn't it? thought it would have fallen under that bracket, what is?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

krudler wrote: »

Love that movie, one of the better mumblecore films. Not much happens but the character interaction makes it well worth watching, all three leads are excellent.

I agree. I especially liked Bobby Cannavale who played Joe. The character could have been kind of clingy and annoying but he came across as really quite likable.

Duggy747

Jaws

Probably the first time I've ever watched this film on a weekday and at night, normally it's a Saturday or Sunday matinee thing :pac:

Still a fantastic movie, I missed it's re-release in the cinema and I would've loved to have heard William's score in the big screen, though my sound system did it's job...............despite the 5.1 sound mix of the version I saw having quiet dialogue then enormous, booming music and sound effects. Kept jolting the shìt out of me and the gf

I always loved Shaw as Quint, found that character to be the type of hardass who'd drink floor polish and strangle a shark with his hands. So everytime I see the movie a little bit of me always wishes he'd survive.

Now to watch the documentary tonight about the movie as the whole process behind it is highly interesting. In a way, it was quite lucky that the film was ever made considering all of it's technical problems, dangers during filming, and hindsights from the producers who didn't realise how difficult it was to make.

Sad Professor

krudler wrote: »

Isn't it? thought it would have fallen under that bracket, what is?

Definitions vary. Mumblecore isn't really a movement (yet) or genre or style of filmmaking. Any low budget film with lots of talking involving the Duplass brothers or people who hang out with them, I guess.

krudler

Sad Professor wrote: »

Definitions vary. Mumblecore isn't really a movement (yet) or genre or style of filmmaking. Any low budget film with lots of talking involving the Duplass brothers or people who hang out with them, I guess.

I googled it :pac: Ah right, I thought it would have been low key drama stuff, not much in the way of plot but lots of character interaction. The Station Agent is one of the better types of those movies. Nice quirky little movie thats well worth a watch.

johnny_ultimate

krudler wrote: »

I googled it :pac: Ah right, I thought it would have been low key drama stuff, not much in the way of plot but lots of character interaction. The Station Agent is one of the better types of those movies. Nice quirky little movie thats well worth a watch.

Yeah mumblecore IMO is a general, potentially problematic term that nonetheless refers to a very specific type of film and group of filmmakers. Aesthetically and narratively there's very distinct similarities between a lot of them - usually focused on twenty-thirty somethings (with a handful of exceptions) with a very naturalistic directorial style. The cast are usually amateurs - hence the 'mumble' bit. Most of the 'main' films are made by or star a close group of talent - Greta Gerwig, the Duplass Brothers, Joe Swanberg, Andrew Bujalski, Aaron Katz (who's a little bit more of an outsider)... The Station Agent would actually have much more going on in it than your typical 'mumblecore' film. Greenberg would have been a relatively high-profile example heavily inspired by the core mumblecores.

The definition has been blurred a lot since a lot of the main individuals have started to gain more mainstream attention (Gerwig and the Duplasses particularly) and the budgets have increased. Again, it's nothing more than a generalised tag that's come to be associated with a selection of films / filmmakers, and the style a lot of indie filmmakers have tried to emulate since. Funny Ha Ha, Quiet City / Cold Weather and Baghead are the best of the bunch if you haven't checked them out.

TL;DR: The Station Agent ≠ Mumblecore

Gamayun

Perfect Blue (1997) Japanese animated thriller about an actress and her stalker. There's a great sense of tension and of paranoia/delusions as this goes on. Really enjoyable, however I don't know if it was just my copy or not but the quality of the animation seems to be worse (jerkier) at the start of the film, it does improve though and is generally really good.

You, The Living (2007) Swedish film made up of short vignettes, with overlapping characters. This is one of those films that I felt I appreciated more than enjoyed. It's darkly funny in places and has a great look/feel, all dull tones and Nordic light, with mainly static camerawork. Enjoyable enough though.

Professional Griefer

Another 2 tonight. First we watched Grave Encounters 2. Started okish I thought, but was poor enough.

And finally The Prestige. I have no idea why it took me so long to see this film, and before we started I was a bit skeptical about it. Fantastic film, really enjoyed it. Its one that I'll be naming out from now when someone asks me about my favourite films.

Rabidlamb

I'm currently going through a Korean Art-House phase.

The Expendables 2
Arnie, Rambo, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, JCVD, Dolph . . . all blowing stuff up, what's not to like.
Should have dispensed with a script entirely, they nearly did anyway.
Turn off your brain wonderful 7/10.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
Like a cross between Sherlock Holmes & 300, very entertaining.
Daniel Day Lewis will have his work cut out covering all this up.
Nice CGI if you like that thing 6.5/10

Cartman78

Finally caught up with 'Take Shelter' last night - very powerful and at times terrifying. The ambiguous ending fits very well with the rest of the film imho

D'Agger

The Great Debaters (2007)

A very good movie with Denzel at his best, well scripted, and well delivered by a good cast.

Solid 8.5/10, would recommend it.