What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

budgemook

Judgement Day wrote: »

“Clash of the Ash” (1987)

Filmed in Fermoy, County Cork.

Phil Kelly (Liam Heffernan), Leaving Certificate student and angry young star of the local hurling team prefers the cider-drinking company of his mate Martin (Vinnie McCabe) and Martin’s glamorous girl-friend Mary (Gina Moxley) to the cameraderie of the sports field. His frustration with small town life and with other people’s determination to plan his life for him, ultimately drives him to get the boat.

I had forgotten just how good this was and it's one of the few films that I've watched recently that left me wanting more.

Was released on VHS but long gone. The full movie is available on YouTube courtesy of a Boardsie - not me! 10/10

More here: http://wheresgrandad.wordpress.com/tag/cork/

Judgement Day, I wonder have you ever come across Sparrows Trap? Based on a book by and starring Brendan O'Carroll. I remember reading it as a young lad and then reading about it being made into a film (apparently Brendan O'Carroll put all his money into it and was going to go broke if it flopped, which it did) but I have never been able to find a copy.

You seem to be the authority on crappy Irish movies around here

Judgement Day

Never heard of it but I'm on the case.

It appears that the movie was never actually completed having run into financial difficulties in 1999. First trawl of the internet would seem to indicate that following the success of Mrs.Brown's Boys D'Movie he may well resurrect 'Sparrow's Trap'.

budgemook

Judgement Day wrote: »

Never heard of it but I'm on the case.

It appears that the movie was never actually completed having run into financial difficulties in 1999. First trawl of the internet would seem to indicate that following the success of Mrs.Brown's Boys D'Movie he may well resurrect 'Sparrow's Trap'.

Oh right, I thought it was completed because it has an imdb page. Couldn't see Brendan playing sparrow at this stage but would be glad to see it come out. I like Brendan O Carroll, you have to commend his keep trying attitude, although I'm not a fan of the latest version of Agnes Browne.

Thanks for checking.

Tipsy McSwagger

Deliver Us From Evil

Another garbage horror film. A good horror is rarer than a good Cameron Diaz film.

B.A._Baracus

I watched the The Purge: Anarchy tonight and it's a pretty decent watch Never saw the first so can't comment if it's better or worse than that. But if you have 90+ minutes to spare and are bored? Give it a look.

It's not some movie that's amazing. It's not some masterclass movie. It just does it's job

SarahBM

Watched the Lord of the Rings The Two Towers with the cast commentary yesterday. Love those film. I think it's only right I should watch the Return of the King now ðŸ˜

Tony EH

Rewatched the whole trilogy a couple of weeks ago. They've lost nothing.

e_e

So much warmer looking and more atmospheric than the new Hobbit movies too, which just look (ironically, given the 3D) flat and plasticky.

SarahBM

I really feel they abandoned all the traditional movie making techniques that they made such wonderful use of in the LOTR. The hobbit just seems like they got lazy and said "ah sure we'll just use CGI" instead of using the prosthetics and make up. The stunt guy who played Lurtz in the FOTR said make up took 11 hours. Perhaps they just didn't have the time to dedicate to it.

Nerdlingr

Meek's Cutoff

Great build up of tension, will they/wont they find water, escape from the barren landscape etc etc. Is it just over that hill ? Reminded me of the assassination of Jesse James the way it was shot, slow pacing etc. But the ending?!!! First words out of my mouth when it finished were

"For f*ck sake, is that it"- majorly pissed off. Felt the camera could have panned and showed endless mountains, dust plains or water over the next ridge there might have been something to it. I guess its clever in the way that like the protagonists we dont know what's going to happen, what'll be over the next hill. But by god was i p*ssed off last night. Is it rtue they ran out of money and had to finish up the shoot? Might explain it as small bit.

Judgement Day

"Simon: An English Legionnaire" (2002) on YouTube via Wii.

Aka "Deserter"

The movie is based on the true story of Simon Murray, a young Englishman - unlucky in love - who joins the French Foreign Legion in the 1960s and finds himself in the middle of the Algerian war of independence. Nothing wildly dramatic in terms of action but enough to keep you awake. The scenery and atmosphere of North Africa are well captured and the movie only flags in the final few minutes. 7/10

An Irish connection - Kenneth Brannagh gets a thank you in the credits.

Schadenfreudia

Liamalone wrote: »

It (Breaking Bad) only gets better and better

Damn right!

I'm now midway through Season 4...amazing stuff!

Liamalone

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Damn right!

I'm now midway through Season 4...amazing stuff!

I must schedule a rewatch!

RDM_83 again

Watched Killer Joe

Have to say a major disappointment. Before my opinion is pre-judged I wouldn't be a film buff but I do appreciate some dark comedy and nasty films.

This just felt like a mess, it held the attention for the about the 1st half and then I just got bored (herself was bored throughout) neither of us were particularly shocked by it.

• Its not funny in a nasty way, things like the chicken leg scene are just meh, whats happening here. I did enjoy the two bikers though, about the only part I did.

• Its not weird enough to be entertaining simply by being weird

• Its not violent or shocking enough to hold the attention simply on that

• Its pacing and editing seems to be all over the place, now I know thats probably deliberate but it doesn't seem to add anything.

• The acting is pretty good and thought the Dottie was played very well, but part of the reason I watched this was I have a new found respect (like everyone else !) for McConaughey after True Detective, I don't get the love for him in this film though, he just doesn't seem convince me.

• I think its also meant to be a sort of Noir southern crime thing too but there wasn't really any tension

After about 10 minutes in I guessed that

Dottie would probably kill everyone involved, I was only half wrong

The ending

wasn't intriguing it just felt lazy

It obviously worked in someway because I am bothering to post it and I was trying to work out what I felt about it today, but that was more in terms of why didn't I like this film.

I'd recommend it if you liked 7 psychopaths another film I felt was rather aimless and off the wall/arty for the sake of it. I'd probably also recommend it if your easily shocked by violence or a Lolita dynamic because then it might hold your attention better otherwise I would recommend not bothering with it and watching.

American Psycho, funnier, better paced and has actual satire.
Something by David Lynch if your looking for the weirdness
A History of Violence for violence, action, family dynamics and a small town setting.
One of those Korean films (Vengance trilogy probably), for quality hard to watch shocking stuff.
No Country for Old Men for Southern Crime (and its just such a great film its worth rewatching).

I can sort of see how this might have worked in the Play format because there is something there but as a film it just really failed for me, I can see why its IMDB rating is 6.7 and I don't think its simply people reviewing it expecting a standard McConaughey vehicle.

Edit: At a guess I would say part of the reason this film seems to have been so well received by some was seeing McConaughey actually deliver something other than taking his shirt of, coming the other way from True Detective though his character just felt like a 2 dimensional creepy guy with a black hat (a pretty decent creepy psycho guy in a black hat but not memorable like Javier Bardem in No Country or the terrifying Ben Kingsly in Sexy Beast)

Harry Palmr

Serena - 1962. Quite enjoyable 60 minute programmer from B film production and distribution house Butchers Film Service starring Honor Blackman who was on the edge of fame - her next screen role would be in the Avengers. This cropped up on Movies4Men, they have a number of these short films via Renown-Pictures who specialise in reviving old British pictures.

The story is of a murder whodunit, who did do it might be spotted by practising Catholics before its made known in the film (you learn something new every day).

kryogen

Had a re watch of Apocalypse Now.

The horror.....the horror......

Still amazing

firestarter51

Jarhead 2
Not a sequel to jarhead at all
Not a great film
It's like a promo video for us marines
4/10

Judgement Day

Watched "Regan" (1974) on YouTube last night. This was the play that led to the commissioning of the epic TV cop series "The Sweeney". The exploits of the Scotland Yard Flying Squad aka The Sweeney and starring John Thaw and Dennis Waterman. It was a great cop series and a real portal to life in the 1970s - the decade that taste forgot - awful flairs, wide collar shirts, pubs thick with smoke, drink driving, horrible boxy cars....

Anyway, I enjoyed it so much that I started watching the series which now appears to be on YouTube in its entirety - shouldn't think that it will be up for long though. Only another 52 episodes for me to watch.

Tipsy McSwagger

Awesome documentary

http://youtu.be/oy5CRexmfyA

Arghus

Paranorman- After a couple days of suffering with a two day hangover I decided it was time to chance my movie with a brain. Or is the other way round?

I needed something big,brash and colourful, that hopefully wouldn't force me to think awfully hard, just enough to make me feel like I was getting something out of it.

Maybe it was my movie starved frame of mind and the last vestiges of a thunderstorm behind the eyes, but I enjoyed Paranorman immensely. It's top quality movie entertainment for everyone, young or old. It get's two resounding thumbs up.

For the kiddies it's a great gateway movie to horror films. Loads of zombies, brains, laughs and just the right amount of scares. There's a lot of death for a kid's movie- characters die and it's treated like a normal event, something that can happen. Towards the end of the film the business of being dead is touched upon in a very mature and genuinely moving manner. It doesn't pander, it knows children like to be scared, not mollycoddled and it's an entertaining mix with quirky likeable characters. Things move at a brisk pace. No time to meander. Maybe the script was slightly familiar, but I found that part of the charm and I don't think that would bother the target audience one bit.

For adults it's appeal will probably lie in the visuals. Stop motion animation. Ah, it's great stuff. It has such personality and warmth compared to other forms of animation. Throw in a visual palette that's full of imagination and knowing nods to previous horror movies and you've a winning mix.

It's themes are nicely handled. Nothing out of the ordinary- be nice, not judgmental, but presented in a calm and understated way, in a film full of sound and fury. It's climax is busy but manages to be genuine, without the sense that it's trying really, really hard to pull at those heartstrings, a la a lot of later day PIXAR.

Ageyev

Watched the Rob Zombie Halloween films.

The first includes some interesting new ideas and rehashes some old staples of the franchise. The second film is 'so bad it's good' fare, really really silly.


Also watched Excision - good little macabre thriller drama about a teenage girl with some unique fetishes and a desire to perform amateur surgery.

Tony EH

firestarter51 wrote: »

Jarhead 2
Not a sequel to jarhead at all
Not a great film
It's like a promo video for us marines
4/10

Pity. 'Jarhead' was quite good IIRC.

Tony EH

Judgement Day wrote: »

Watched "Regan" (1974) on YouTube last night. This was the play that led to the commissioning of the epic TV cop series "The Sweeney". The exploits of the Scotland Yard Flying Squad aka The Sweeney and starring John Thaw and Dennis Waterman. It was a great cop series and a real portal to life in the 1970s - the decade that taste forgot - awful flairs, wide collar shirts, pubs thick with smoke, drink driving, horrible boxy cars....

Anyway, I enjoyed it so much that I started watching the series which now appears to be on YouTube in its entirety - shouldn't think that it will be up for long though. Only another 52 episodes for me to watch.

A great series.

The music used to signify bedtime for me when I was a kid. The repeats on ITV were on fairly late in the 80's, but I always wanted to stay up and watch it.

It's quite gritty in some episodes, certainly way more realistic than the cop dramas that preceded it, so my parents were probably correct to ship me off.

"Boxy cars" :eek:

How dare you!!!

Ford Granada's and S type Jags....lovely!

Back when cars were cars and not shapeless blobs.

Arghus

Brief Encounter- Another trip to ye olde classic film nostalgia world with this one. Another classic which I had never laid eyes upon. My shame burns a little less painfully now.

The sedate pacing can seem almost sleepy in comparison with the modern day, but there's no denying the deserved classic status of this one. A howl of repressed emotion and passion from emotionally straight jacketed times.

For all the films stagey mannerisms, which show it's stage origins, the film gains a great poignancy by the time the narrative rolls around to the end and we can finally realise the depth of feeling and difficulty of situation felt by the poor beleaguered couple. Adding to the emotional turmoil is the fact that are no easy answers or escapes- no-one in the affair is running from a terrible place in life or a tyrant at home. They just see the possibility of another life, which is alluring because it's so unobtainable.

It's a beautifully shot film. It felt like it was like a film noir of the emotions, with stark black and white, filled with trains spewing out coal smoke and town streets with old discarded newspaper sheets billowing about. Some of the camera work, particularly at the climax, when all that repressed emotion comes seeping out for a few split seconds, is downright shocking and disturbing compared to the willfully buttoned everything that has come before.

A great film- excellently acted, beautifully shot, highly evocative of time and place and psychologically acute.

kryogen

Edge of Tomorrow

I was pleasantly surprised, an excellent blockbuster type film imo, kept me entertained throughout and a well executed if not the most original main plot.

8/10
Would bang

e_e

Halloween, only saw it first around this time last year and it's really held up on the rewatch. Great stuff.

Ageyev

e_e wrote: »

Halloween, only saw it first around this time last year and it's really held up on the rewatch. Great stuff.

The 1978 I assume. A brilliant suspense film, far and above the teen horror/slasher films that came later and is often associated with.

charlie_says

The Signal (2014)

Basic plot; three friends on a road trip end up entangled in a possible alien abduction and subsequent recovery and observation by shady governmental scientist types.

Interesting if flawed sci fi mystery weird out. Looks really great in nearly all of the film, William Eubank really does have a visual flair that sucks you in to shots. Use of slow motion shots work well and even though they are perhaps a bit overused for the action - which is pretty good and brief - just seem to work. Everything you plot wise see has been done before, but perhaps just not as prettily.

Ending seemed a bit rushed, but overall worth a look. The middle facility part of the film was the strongest as I was really intrigued by wtf was really going on.

Laurence Fishbourne was pretty bad ass in this too with his sinister red case and biohazard suit.

Charlie19

Stay 2005

Movie starring Ryan Gosling who plays a sole survivor of a car accident and how he's coming to terms with the outcome.

Also starring Naomi Watts, Bob Hopkins and Ewan McGregor.

A fairly good thriller that had me guessing right to the end.

A very good, but heart felt ending

charlie_says

Desolation of Smaug

Smaug was great in this. Definitely a top movie villain. Everything from his dialogue, voice and serpentine movement and looks was spot on from my memory of the book.

The rest of it was OK, better than the first Hobbit film which I felt was a bit pants.