What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Charlie19

Looks like you stuck it out till the end, I admire your commitment.

I personally wouldn't watch a movie that rated under 5 on imdb and would stay well clear of daft movie titles.

vidor

I won't watch anything under 9.5.

Bipolar Joe

Charlie19 wrote: »

Looks like you stuck it out till the end, I admire your commitment.

I personally wouldn't watch a movie that rated under 5 on imdb and would stay well clear of daft movie titles.

Ah, now, that's unfair. IMDB has the worst case of ratings abuse I've ever seen online. Absolute dross gets great ratings, sometimes, and perfectly fine films get under five very often. My all time favourite b-movie, Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare, has 4.2. You won't find a more entertaining b-movie than that.

johnny_ultimate

Deconstructing Harry - Woody Allen can still surprise me. This is an uneven work by its very nature, but also one of the most biting and self-depreciating efforts the man has ever made. Some of the chapters are very witty: Robin Williams as an out of focus actor, a very young Tobey Maguire's odd attempt at hiring a prostitute, a ludicrous story about the dark secret of an elderly Jewish husband. Also nice to see Allen not romanticising his character's behaviour as it often was in earlier (and indeed later) films. Not vintage Woody Allen, but certainly one of his better and more unique efforts from the 1990s.

Dinosaur 13 - great story concerning the discovery of a near-complete T-Rex fossil and the increasingly unexpected catastrophes that befell its finders. Worth it for the story alone, but as a piece of documentary filmmaking its no great shakes.

A Spell to Ward off the Darkness - a mesmerising triptych from directors Ben Rivers and Ben Russell. Loosely tied together by the presence of a nameless character played by Robert A.A. Lowe, these 'stories' (an overly generous description) abandon almost all concepts of plot or narrative to instead focus on developing mood through camera, sound and expressions. The first section (set in a commune) is a bit awkward, but the second two - offering barely a line of dialogue between them - are superb. It's full of haunting imagery and potently ambiguous themes - there's no right answers here in a film that wants the viewer to figure out their own answers. The sequences play off each other, but in ways that are hard to describe - it's a film that instead feels like it wants to offer more subconscious pleasures. The third part takes the form of a half hour black metal performance - I'd be no fan of the genre, but the stunningly evocative and drifting camerawork makes for one of the most impressively intimate and raw concerts I've ever seen on screen.

Not everyone agreed - at the screening I was at, more than half of the viewers present simply stood up and left in fairly quick succession a good bit before the end, which is a pretty weird thing considering it was a press screening and I assume everyone there will have to write about it at some capacity. But it will definitely and understandably be divisive - the glacial pacing and near complete lack of narrative will infuriate many, especially if its unusual rhythm fails to hook them. But IMO it was an experimental delight - that odd sensation where a film sinks its hooks in, and it's just as fun trying to figure out 'why' that was so. Even if answers remain elusive, sometimes the experience more than suffices.

kryogen

The Possession of Michael King - Really enjoyed this film for what it was. The directing style worked very well and the lead actor played the role very well. The only part I thought what a cop out, or perhaps just out of place with the tone of the film (but had been telegraphed also) was the last few minutes/ending.

Would recommend

D'Agger

Transcendance:

Really liked the idea of it and while I feel it reached a bit too far, I still enjoyed the movie and it's application of what it set out to achieve

Harry Palmr

Theatre of Death (1967), competent nicely shot pot-boiler about Grand Guignol style show with a killer on the loose. StudioCanal release on Horror Channel

Amer (2009), also on Horror Channel. 50% Jess Franco, 40% Pedro Almodóvar and 10% Dario Argento. Almost dialogue free drama about a girls dreams/nightmares. Its hard to describe - an audio/visual poem based around the threat of violence, when it actually happens its nasty (though mainly for the sound effects which are almost literally "set your teeth on edge" in nature). Nicely filmed in Spain by a French writer/director pairing for a Walloon production house the music soundtrack is made up of snippets of classic Giallo music and the credits look straight out of the mid 70s as well.

A word of advice - see this in the dark, any light spilling onto the screen will make it very hard to watch.

dark crystal

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Mike Nichol's take on Edward Albee's play about the increasingly bitter disintegration of a marriage played out over one drunken night, is an exhausting affair and by the end, you feel as if you've done ten rounds with Mike Tyson.

I'll start out by saying that I've never really gotten the appeal of Elizabeth Taylor; I've always found her rather....hammy. Her performance here is no different. She once again acts BIG, very very big, but her character comes off more like an annoyingly overwrought, shouty American soap character than a real three dimensional person. Richard Burton, however, plays his character with much more nuance and shade - a far more interesting performance.

I was looking forward so much to finally seeing this film, being a huge fan of Nichols, but was left somewhat underwhelmed. Defeated, maybe. Nichols has always directed women rather well, but here, both female characters are irritating to the point of distraction.
Perhaps there are some actors, for whom their likeabilty just seems to pass you by. Taylor is one of those for me and by the end of this film, I just really tired of her character, her overacting and her hard, contorted facial expressions.
Burton is the biggest saving grace of the film and should have won the Oscar instead of his wife that year. How Taylor managed two wins over her career and Burton none, will always remain a mystery to me...

Tony EH

Actually, the writer of the play, Edward Albee, said that Taylor was good in the role.

She's supposed to be "annoyingly overwrought" and "shouty". An utterly ignominious harridan.

Although I would agree with you about Taylor in general. There are really only two pictures that I enjoy her in, 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and ' Cat on a Hot Tin roof'. She was popular for being Elizabeth Taylor. But, that could be said for the vast amount of Hollywood stars of yesteryear and today. They just really play themselves.

But at least in the two pictures mentioned above Taylor mad the effort to break out of her comfort zone.

Albee's original choice was Bette Davis and while I like some of Davis' work, she's a prime example of an actress who ALWAYS simply played a version of herself and never broke any new ground.

I also think she would have been terrible as Martha.

Also you have to remember, 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' is a play first and foremost, so the characters are writ large for the stage. In addition, nearly the entire screenplay was ditched in favor of Albee's original dialogue, because Nichol's and the crew hated it.

Harry Palmr

Flash Gordon (1980) Dir Mike Hogdes

Fantastic fun, how this didn't get an Oscar for set and or costume design beats me, the whole thing looks and sounds like a live action comic book should.

bnt

Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
For a Tom Hanks / Meg Ryan vehicle, this was genuinely weird. Joe (Hanks) hates his job in the advertising department of a company that makes rectal probes and other surgical gear, so when he's diagnosed with a terminal "brain cloud", it's a relief. Then a zillionaire (Lloyd Bridges) pays him to travel to a South Sea island to sacrifice himself by jumping in to a volcano, so that the zillionaire can win some mineral rights from a chief (Abe Vigoda a.k.a. Tessio from The Godfather in a headdress). Ryan herself plays three different parts, too. I think it's supposed to be allegorical, or something ... :pac:

B.A._Baracus

Point Break (1991)
Watched it with my brother there last week. Nither of us have seen it in years but both remember it being really good.
Not the case now tho :pac: There are some silly moments in the movie that made us go "ehhh.. huh?" Oh and I know it's just a movie but it makes you think and not in a good way.

For example, at the end of the bank robbery/chase scene. Bodhi (Syawze) now knows Utah (Reeves) is an FBI agent. And vice versa. Utah already found out that Bodhi was behind the bank robberies. So both characters at this point have learned the truth about each other.

But then 3 scenes later Bodhi and his crew turn up at Utah's place and both parties act like nothing happened :pac: yeah yeah, Bodhi had a plan to sort out Utah. But the masquerade has dropped :pac: Why don't they have shotguns? lol.. Why does Utah slowly reach for his gun when he has a chance to just grab it?

But in fact why did Utah let Bodhi escape during the bank robbery chase anyways? Forget he was an FBI agent working undercover? :pac:
Then we are introduced to that fact Bodhi has Tyler (Lori Petty) hostage. So yadda, yadda, Utah has to play ball... yadda yadd yadda. Let's skip to the end of the movie...

Utah has spent the last year trying to catch Bodhi... but decides to let him go to have the "ultimate surf" but hold on, wasnt this the guy who robbed banks, shot two people dead, was gonna kill your girlfriend and killed your partner (Busey) ... it just doesnt make sense

Yes. I know... I was ranting. It's just I really liked the movie years ago. Maybe it's just more mature thinking. Maybe because it's now a cult movie. I dunno.

krudler

They're not really plot holes though?

Bodhi knows Utah is an FBI agent, but he doesnt know that Utah already knows Bodhi is in the gang. It's just a game they're both playing with each other when he turns up at the apartment. He lets him go during the robbery because he..likes him?
Utah lets him go for his surf because he's been waiting his whole life for it and he knows he's not coming back, and then quits being a cop, with the High Noon homage shot of him chucking his badge away.

Point Break is awesome, don't question it :pac:

ButtersSuki

Man on a Ledge as the OH wanted to see it, recorded from Film 4 last week. It's so appallingly awful i don't know where to start. The plot has more holes than a Swiss Cheese Factory, I gave up counting continuity errors aloud after a while (after I was scolded for doing so….lol) and the performances are just, well, silly. Throw in along the way is a totally unnecessary scene involving Billy Elliot's Latina girlfriend stripping down to her smalls to slip into another outfit (whilst in the middle of breaking and entering a high security safe no less) and a begorrah Irish pub drinking and wedding proposal to seal it all and you get a huge stinking turd……or a so bad it's almost good comedy (depending on your mood). A God awful 2/10. Sidenote: Ed Burns, I loved you in Brothers McMullen - has it come to this?

Yesterday I finally got to watch The Ides of March having recorded it from BBC on Saturday night. I missed this in the cinema and never got around to seeing it in the interim. I ordered it from amazon on Friday on blu ray but I think it'll likely be going back unopened after this initial viewing although I'm such a nerd I may keep it for the commentary. Pretty impressive ensemble cast of PSH, Clooney, Giamatti and Ryan Gosling amongst others, it's a political tale of power, corruption and the rewards of same. PSH is his usual reliable self, Clooney is Clooney, Gosling does a lot of staring (as he does) and Giamatti basically plays the same animated Paul Giamatti role we've seen countless times before. Before the need credits rolled I knew Clooney had directed it as his stamp is all over it. Stylistically, its very like "Good Night and Good Luck". I had high hopes for this but untimely it seemed rushed and under-developed - it really needed to be a lot longer to flesh out the

betrayals

and ultimately it was just a little too hard to believe

Stephen/Gosling's volte face

A disappointing 6/10.

Harry Palmr

I watched Ides as well (did you spot the Bad language warning flash up on screen about 10 mins in?) it was something of a disappointment for me as well. Really little more than a posh looking TV soap opera of the kind that TV churns out by the yard these days. The reviews floating around would have one think it was comparable with the classics of Alan J Pakula, Coppola, etc in the 70s. Its not. Its just high powered cast with a low powered script. (I should point out I really like George Clooneys stuff as a rule).

ButtersSuki

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I watched Ides as well (did you spot the Bad language warning flash up on screen about 10 mins in?) it was something of a disappointment for me as well. Really little more than a posh looking TV soap opera of the kind that TV churns out by the yard these days. The reviews floating around would have one think it was comparable with the classics of Alan J Pakula, Coppola, etc in the 70s. Its not. Its just high powered cast with a low powered script. (I should point out I really like George Clooneys stuff as a rule).

Yeah that bad language thing was weird, first time I've seen that on the Beeb.

kryogen

Currently 1hour and 5 minutes into Divergent, I'm still watching but its pretty meh tbh. I assume something is going to happen in the next hour or so to make this worthwhile.....I hope so anyway!

Cokeistan

How to train your dragon 2 is fantastic

Tipsy McSwagger

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Point Break (1991)
Watched it with my brother there last week. Nither of us have seen it in years but both remember it being really good.
Not the case now tho :pac: There are some silly moments in the movie that made us go "ehhh.. huh?" Oh and I know it's just a movie but it makes you think and not in a good way.

For example, at the end of the bank robbery/chase scene. Bodhi (Syawze) now knows Utah (Reeves) is an FBI agent. And vice versa. Utah already found out that Bodhi was behind the bank robberies. So both characters at this point have learned the truth about each other.

But then 3 scenes later Bodhi and his crew turn up at Utah's place and both parties act like nothing happened :pac: yeah yeah, Bodhi had a plan to sort out Utah. But the masquerade has dropped :pac: Why don't they have shotguns? lol.. Why does Utah slowly reach for his gun when he has a chance to just grab it?

But in fact why did Utah let Bodhi escape during the bank robbery chase anyways? Forget he was an FBI agent working undercover? :pac:
Then we are introduced to that fact Bodhi has Tyler (Lori Petty) hostage. So yadda, yadda, Utah has to play ball... yadda yadd yadda. Let's skip to the end of the movie...

Utah has spent the last year trying to catch Bodhi... but decides to let him go to have the "ultimate surf" but hold on, wasnt this the guy who robbed banks, shot two people dead, was gonna kill your girlfriend and killed your partner (Busey) ... it just doesnt make sense

Yes. I know... I was ranting. It's just I really liked the movie years ago. Maybe it's just more mature thinking. Maybe because it's now a cult movie. I dunno.

The only problem I have with Point Break is Utah got 2 Meatball Sandwiches,
a Tuna on Wheat and 2 Lemonades for $7.84.

SarahBM

on a bit of a Marvel binge since catching up on Agents of Shield. So over the last few nights I have watched Iron Man 2 and 3, Thor and Thor: the Dark World and the Avengers. I love these films.
Plus I watched Captain America The First Avenger and the Winter Soldier last wk.

For those above discussing the Ides of March, I just found my self comparing it to the West Wing the whole time. and like ye said, you could tell from the off it was directed by Clooney.

kryogen

Right, finished Divergent. ****e tbh. Just failed to hit the mark unfortunately

dark crystal

Just got done watching The Grand Budapest Hotel. I adored it.

Wes Anderson can be a bit hit and miss for me, but I loved everything about this film; the casting, the story, the photography. Ralph Fiennes is a comedic genius. There's just something rib ticklingly funny about his posh swearing and his timing is immaculate.

Pure film bliss from start to finish.

Mackman

Went to see Magic in the Moonlight last night. Really enjoyed it. It started off a bit rough, some clunky dialogue setting up the characters, first 20mins felt a bit rushed. But it improved from then on. Colin Firth's character is quite abrasive but mellows as the movie goes on and you start to sympathise with his point of view.

Absolutely beautifully shot movie. Set in the south of France in perpetual sunshine.

Overall 7/10

Birneybau

dark crystal wrote: »

Just got done watching The Grand Budapest Hotel. I adored it.

Wes Anderson can be a bit hit and miss for me, but I loved everything about this film; the casting, the story, the photography. Ralph Fiennes is a comedic genius. There's just something rib ticklingly funny about his posh swearing and his timing is immaculate.

Pure film bliss from start to finish.

Bit of heart coming through in both this and 'Moonrise Kingdom', really fond of both. Some of his other stuff, while obviously very stylish, can be a bit arch.

McGrath5

Finished watching Her.

Very much enjoyed this, there are plenty of echoes from Lost In Translation.

I think I'll give it another watch later on, I felt I did not pick up on everything from my first watch.

Birneybau

McGrath5 wrote: »

Finished watching Her.

Very much enjoyed this, there are plenty of echoes from Lost In Translation.

I think I'll give it another watch later on, I felt I did not pick up on everything from my first watch.

Watch it with headphones on if possible, found it ratcheted up the intimacy myself.

Tipsy McSwagger

Watched The Rover yesterday and the main thing I got out of it is Robert Pattinson is a really good actor. I've never watched any Twilight films so I thought he was just some teen heartthrob. The film was ok, 3/5*.

ButtersSuki

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy BBC miniseries starring Alec Guinness who's in top form in this. Slow, but worth the effort. My criticism of the movie was that it was too short, but 7 episodes deliver the necessary depth to bring the multi-layered story to life. Yes, it's a bit dated in places (what would you expect from something made in 1979) but overall, it's worth the time and effort. I really enjoyed it. 8/10.

johnny_ultimate

At Berkeley - Remarkable. An extended masterclass in documentary filmmaking. Over 244 minutes (and not a wasted moment) Frederick Wiseman brings us on an intimate and epic journey around Berkeley University. We sit in on lectures, sporting events, pep rallies, musical performances, tutorials, board meetings, protests, plays, campus construction work, poetry readings, social group gatherings and more besides. With each sequence given plenty of time to play out, it's an engrossing and varied selection of moments that captures the diversity of this huge campus and its staff, students, administration and faculty.

If it was just that it would be well worth the time investment. But Wiseman has carefully chosen to have a lot of rich thematic strands running throughout. It doesn't take long to realise that the filmmaker is endlessly curious about the economic and social conflicts, dynamics and hypocrisies of the school. The film might be set entirely in one campus, but it serves as an in-depth look at post-downturn America and how that's represented in this one university. While the act of filming and editing itself is an intervention of sorts, Wiseman miraculously manages to resist applying explicit editorial commentary here - there's no-one talking directly to camera, or any cheap music cues, but instead just a huge range of perspectives, talking points and contrasts. Everyone is given equal screentime, and the various conflicts that form the film's dramatic core are shown to be ones with no simple solutions.

There's only a handful of screenings in the IFI this week, but if you can make it do so - this is a documentary to completely immerse yourself in for four fascinating hours.

Sam Mac

Watched Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter last night.

Fantastic film with superb performances. I've seen all of his films now and have really loved every one of them.