What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

bcklschaps

ButtersSuki wrote: »

You prob missed the very nice shots of Natalie Portman's ass then - just about the only redeeming feature of the movie.

I enjoyed 'Your Highness' .. (watched it with my GF who thought it was pure stupid). Natalie Portman is delicious and Danny McBride is hilarious in a kind of a foul mouthed bone-head way. McBride basically plays the same character in all his films .. you either love him or hate him .. (a bit like Will Ferrell)

He's better in these two

- Land of the lost
- This is the End

e_e

Squeedily Spooch wrote: »

I thought it was absolutely fantastic, especially the finale. When

Teller walks back on stage and goes off on his own solo and Simmon's character realises what exactly he's doing and starts giving him direction I got chills. Interestingly it's supposed to be a scene where an abused person gives in to their abuser and goes back for more, not a triumphant scene even though it feels that way according to the director. Be interesting to see how people interpret it. And you're right about the cut to black, it leaves the question open if Fletcher found his Charlie Parker, or would Teller's character go off on his own having performed his career moment.

Such a cathartic ending. Makes you want to punch the air without it being the usual "woohoo! we won!" clichéd climax.

ButtersSuki

bcklschaps wrote: »

I enjoyed 'Your Highness' .. (watched it with my GF who thought it was pure stupid). Natalie Portman is delicious and Danny McBride is hilarious in a kind of a foul mouthed bone-head way. McBride basically plays the same character in all his films .. you either love him or hate him .. (a bit like Will Ferrell)

He's better in these two

- Land of the lost
- This is the End

I like McBride alright - esp. in Eastbound and Down, haven't seen LOTL but I did like This Is The End a lot more than I expected. Was just disappointed with Your Highness. :mad:

jcsoulinger

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Your Highness - nah I didn't really, gave it about 15 minutes then realised it wasn't going to get any better so went through the rest in 30 second PVR jumps. Looks like they spent too much time and money on everything but the script.

I thought it was good not great definitely watchable with some very funny bits, you do realise the script (probably allot of which was improvised) was intentionally bad.

Harry Palmr

Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) Dir Jan Svankajer

Non verbal portrait of six Prague residents sexual fantasies and kinks, very much in the tradition of Czech surrealism. Always intriguing, and sometimes surprising.

johnny_ultimate

Girlhood - After Water Lilies and Tomboy, Celine Sciamma delivers another sensitive, beautifully made and modestly subversive tale of adolescence. She's very good at the coming-of-age drama - like all her films, this is a film that feels full of truth and quiet insight. This follows a group of black teenage girls in the Paris suburbs, and it quickly becomes apparent that's a shockingly rare perspective for a film. Even more unique is how genuine and natural everything feels. The characters are brilliantly drawn - the actors are mostly non-professional, but just like Water Lilies and Tomboy before it this is the kind of film where that's a definite asset.

Things get a lot 'plottier' in the second half, probably to the film's detriment. But IMO there's still a whole lot of interest going on, and the film earns its superb final shot. Sciamma's usual thematic concerns of gender identity and sexuality aren't as pronounced this time, but they're definitely still there - in fact, there's the beginnings of a sex scene that flips usual gender roles in quite a confident way.

In terms of style and direction, I thought this was more confident than Tomboy, more in line with Water Lilies. Thankfully Sciamma has collaborated with Para One again here, and the score is very effective (especially during effective 'breaks' that powerfully mark several key moments in the film). A definite highlight of the film is the use of Rhianna's Diamonds in a brilliantly simple but captivating scene of adolescent friendship and fun. As a coming-of-age tale and a story of friendship, Girlhood is a true gem, and a third confident feature from a still-young filmmaker. Here's hoping for many more.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Watched One Million Dubliners on RTÉ tonight.

I'd seen/heard people singing it's praises for a while now so I was expecting a lot.

Have to say I was disappointed. I was expecting an in depth look at this ancient cemetery, it's history and some interesting stories about the many interesting people buried there. You get a bit of that at the start but then it veers off into a morbid examination of death. I know, I know, a film about a graveyard, death is obviously going to come up. Here's my problem though. Something happens at the end that makes me wonder if that's why the focus suddenly shifts. If this thing hadn't happened what shape would the finished film have taken? The focus seemed to be all over the place for a while and then becomes solely about death, Glasnevin itself becomes irreverent. I suppose that's how you make a documentary, you film a load of stuff and see what story you can tell at the end of it all but here it just feels like the end product doesn't fit entirely with the rest of the film, if that makes sense?

mikemac1

The Grey Zone

Set in Aushwitz in 1944. All this mass killing requires labour and for that they have the Sonderkommando which are prisoners who work for 3-4 months and then get gassed themselves.

It's based on a book written by a Jew who assisted as camp doctor. The production company built a replica of parts of the camp and the colossal munitiions factory it all looks extremely impressive.

David Arquette, Harvey Keitel & Daniel Benzali are in it and Brian F O'Byrne has a dodgy German accent but I like him as an actor so that's grand. Steve Buscemi is in it too with a small role

Some disturbing scences in it but that's to be expected. It also examines that the Jews are not just one group. The Polish Jews and Hungarians Jews didn't give a damn about each other but they were forced to work together to carry out their plan

It's worth a watch, thumbs up

Tony EH

'The Grey Zone' is probably the only holocaust film that's worth any salt.

And yet, it's a film that few people know about.

I wonder if it's not lionized like other lesser efforts like 'Schindler's List', or the frankly, piss poor, 'The Pianist' because it isn't as black and white as those efforts and presents Jews as people and not unrealistic, put upon saints.

From what I recall, it's certainly the most sincere of the holocaust movie efforts, which isn't hard, because 99% of them are appalling mush.

Tindie

RoboCop (1987)

I had not seen it for year, s

I don't remember it being as gory back then but I was really surprise as the gory it was, I did not expect that at all.

That is one of reason why I really enjoyed the movie, thought it was really well made, a lot of action in the movie that
blends in with the drama.

There few one-liners to make you laugh, here and there and I think the effects for time was really good.

I

the acting was great from the cast


7 out of 10

Bipolar Joe

Something a tiny bit more light hearted than The Grey zone:

Hawkeye (1988)

Directed by Leo Fong, according to the movie, but IMDB says George Chung, the star of the movie, did. Leo Fong made and starred in Low Blow, one of my favourite shitty movies. Hawkeye is like if Low Blow and Rush Hour had a baby that did an amazing impression of Eddie Murphy.

Alexander Hawkamoto, AKA Hawkey AKA Hawkeye, is a Chinese guy from Texas. A good old boy with a troubled past who learned karate from a fat white guy in the YMCA, who likes to get the bad guy at any cost and "Pack shit" with the guys. He's partnered up with Wilson, a fast talking cool black guy, to solve a case they haven't been assigned and just kind of go along with.

What follows is some of the weirdest one liners and awkward pauses in cinematic history. I'm talking Samurai Cop level brilliance. Breaking the fourth wall, delivery that would make Napolean Dynamite look over emotive, and fudging of lines on a regular basis. Like, those were your best takes?

You can also play a drinking came called "Where's the crew?" Take a shot or gulp of your chosen alcoholic beverage any time you spot a member of the crew or film equipment. The boom mic' deserves it's own credit, it's in the movie just as much as George Chung.

I found this on tape in a charity shop, so finding it will be a hassle, but if you can, it's recommended more than any movie I have ever recommended. I laughed so hard I cried and did a little bit of a wee in my pants. It's so good, I'm watching it again tonight.

On a -10 to +10 scale, -10 being Troll 2 types of movies, this is a -9. Top tier bottom tier film gold.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Life's A Breeze

A cash strapped family decide to treat their mother (by clearing out her house without asking her) and are shocked to discover she's been stuffing her money in her mattress for 50 years, the mattress they've just thrown out.

Very disappointed with this. I watched Lance Daly's first film Kisses a while ago and loved it. I was expecting so much more from his second film. It just didn't work for me at all. I did like the little bits of the relationship between Nan and her granddaughter Emma that we got to see but I could have done without Pat Shortt's presence. I think that performance of his in Garage was a one off.

batnolan

Jesus Camp (2006)

Documentary that looks at the indoctrination of children by the Evangelical Christian church in America. Frightening stuff. Only an hour twenty minutes long.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2013?)

Just a nice, simple movie. Really enjoyed this one.

Frances Ha! (2013?)

Excellent. The lead gives a great performance. Excellent.

charlie_says

batnolan wrote: »

Jesus Camp (2006)

Documentary that looks at the indoctrination of children by the Evangelical Christian church in America. Frightening stuff. Only an hour twenty minutes long.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2013?)

Just a nice, simple movie. Really enjoyed this one.

Frances Ha! (2013?)

Excellent. The lead gives a great performance. Excellent.

Jesus Camp is brilliant.

kryogen

Too tired to write anything substantial, but watched The Fault in our Stars because she made me basically, I do like Woodley though both as an actress and physically so that helped, well, not so much in this film, anyway...... Some strong performances, most notably from Woodley who gives her usual impressive performances and the film is pretty good in terms of being a novel adaption. Very sad though, tough to watch at times for me and I guess that means it did its job.

johnny_ultimate

Goodbye to Language 3D

If you only ever see one 3D film in the cinema, make sure its this.

Actually, if you only get to see one film in the cinema in 2015 (which is when I assume this will actually show up in more screens), make sure its this. Because it's a film based around the assumption you are watching in a theatre, and it therefore wants to **** with you.

So: Jean Luc Godard, well into his 80s, continue to experiment and innovate to a degree that shames even the best up-and-comers.

Goodbye to Language is baffling, brilliant, radical and infuriating, almost always at the same time. This is the 3D film, one that shatters every established rule of three-dimensional cinematography with a cheeky middle finger. One electrifying sequence (riffed on later, since most sequences in this film have a mirror image for several reasons) just shatters through our very basic concept of 3D in one of the most bravura feats of cinematic daring I've had the pleasure to witness. But throughout the 3D cinematography is remarkable and experimental (often using lo-fi cameras). You know the way in 3D after a while you just sort of forget the depth is there, bar the fact the image is distractingly dark? Godard keeps you on your toes from the very first frame to the last.

Thematically and narratively, this is a film fascinated with duality - appropriate for a film that wreaks such havoc with the left and right visual planes. This is late Godard, so its full of literary allusions, fractured storytelling, wild tangents, and heavy abstractions. There's also two scenes (two again!) of people taking hilariously exaggerated dumps, because why the **** not? Frankly, one viewing is barely enough to even start appreciating it fully or comprehending its insane complexity. Thankfully, the film has incited some of the most engaged, intelligent and insightful criticism in recent memory. David Bordwell's essay is a wonderful and informative start (broken into 'spoiler' and 'spoiler free' categories if you want to get an idea before heading): http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2014/09/07/adieu-au-langage-2-2-x-3d/

If only more films earned the level of analysis and discussion this has - although, let's be fair, most don't deserve it.

This is a very difficult film - and I mean physically, not just mentally. If you get eye strain or headaches from 3D, best of ****ing luck with this one. It's a visual assault - someone on Letterboxd called it 'hostile' 3D, which is a perfect description. But it's always done to force the audience to analyse and question the imagery on screen, to come to a deeper understanding of what is happening. The sound, too, demands a surround system. It again uses the different speakers with exhilarating and disorientating effect, constantly stopping, starting, distorting, or sometimes being totally dissonant. Again, this is Godard breaking every formal rule, and in doing so he asks to question everything we know about cinema, narrative, technology, form, sound and - yes - language.

This is probably one of the best films in years, but I probably need another two or three viewings to decide for sure. After my brain, eyes and ears calmed down a bit, I realised I'd watch it again immediately if I could. When's that wide release again?

briany

Willow Creek (2013)

Mockumentary about a couple who go up to the Pacific-Northwest in order to investigate bigfoot lore and especially the famed Patterson-Gimlin footage.

This is Bobcat Goldthwaite's directorial take on the Mockumentary genre, but I think it's a very good one. Nothing groundbreaking, but very well done.

tunguska

17 Again

I came home from training last sunday and I just caught the start of this. Dont know why I just didnt change the channel, I mean it was a Zach Efron movie.......it was a Zach efron does Freaky friday movie. Holy Mother of Jesus, the apocalypse has come for us all. But.......I found myself laughing, and not in an unintentionally funny way. Laughing where I was meant to laugh. And The longer it went on the more Im thinking Zach Efron can actually act, he's funny, he can actually do comedy.
And the guy playing his grown up mate, he was brilliant, he kind of stole the movie and the scenes between him and the school principal were hilarious.
This movie has made me doubt myself and everything I thought I knew about Hollywood and the film industry. Its either a really well written and acted movie thats genuinely funny or I've just lost my mind........

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Standby

Irish film with Brian Gleeson and some American women who is in Mad Men, or so I'm told. He works at the tourist information in Dublin Airport. Her flight's been diverted from Paris and she has to wait until the next day to get a flight out. They bump into one another and it turns out they used to be in love 8 years ago in America but then he left to come home to Ireland and never went back. Long story short he convinces her to stay with him for the night and he'll take her out on the town, show her the sights. It's your typical romcom, you know where it's going in the end but is it charming enough to make you care how they get there?

No, not really.

Brian Gleeson seems a nice enough chap but I didn't really get any chemistry from them as a couple and she just seemed very... American? If that makes sense? Maybe it was because she was surrounded by a pile of Irish heads it really stuck out, I don't know. It's not awful or anything, some bits were quite funny, mainly his conversations with his mates and the French one he works with. Dublin looks lovely in parts of it though, but he basically just takes her from pub to pub to a hotel bar.... to another pub.

I read reviews where they said it was like a love letter to Dublin or Dublin is the 3rd character in the film but to me it seems like the whole film was questioning why he thought he had to come back to Ireland 8 years ago and what was worth staying in it for now. Didn't seem like much of a love letter to me.

Dr. Mantis Toboggan

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Standby

Irish film with Brian Gleeson and some American women who is in Mad Men, or so I'm told. He works at the tourist information in Dublin Airport. Her flight's been diverted from Paris and she has to wait until the next day to get a flight out. They bump into one another and it turns out they used to be in love 8 years ago in America but then he left to come home to Ireland and never went back. Long story short he convinces her to stay with him for the night and he'll take her out on the town, show her the sights. It's your typical romcom, you know where it's going in the end but is it charming enough to make you care how they get there?

No, not really.

Brian Gleeson seems a nice enough chap but I didn't really get any chemistry from them as a couple and she just seemed very... American? If that makes sense? Maybe it was because she was surrounded by a pile of Irish heads it really stuck out, I don't know. It's not awful or anything, some bits were quite funny, mainly his conversations with his mates and the French one he works with. Dublin looks lovely in parts of it though, but he basically just takes her from pub to pub to a hotel bar.... to another pub.

I read reviews where they said it was like a love letter to Dublin or Dublin is the 3rd character in the film but to me it seems like the whole film was questioning why he thought he had to come back to Ireland 8 years ago and what was worth staying in it for now. Didn't seem like much of a love letter to me.

Sounds like a piss up. Does it include where he drops the hand and covers himself in curry and cheese fries?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Dr. Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Sounds like a piss up. Does it include where he drops the hand and covers himself in curry and cheese fries?

No. He did take her to Zaytoon for a kebab though

Harry Palmr

The Quatermass Experiment (1955) Dir Val Guest

The first of the big screen adaptations of the small screen professor made by Hammer Studios, with imported American male and female leads to help with financing and distribution deals (boo!), a brisk enough 80 mins and containing one classic 50s scene as the wife of the sick astronaut rescues him from the facility so as to get him to a proper hospital and then offers him a cigarette in the car. :pac:

Schadenfreudia

Defenders of the Galaxy

Watchable junk. :rolleyes:

the_monkey

Zodiac

I was expecting a lot and to be honest, it was too long and just had no pay off

Tony EH

One of the best films of the noughties.

Also, there was no "pay off" in real life either. They never caught the guy?

the_monkey

I know, and I'm not saying I wanted a happy ending blah blah, I just found it too long to watch - and normally I really like Fincher.

MagicMarker

Tony EH wrote: »

One of the best films of the noughties ever..

FYP

Tony EH

HEY!!!!

But...yeh.

tunguska

I cant listen to the Hurdy Gurdy man anymore without getting freaked.......

Harry Palmr

The Swarm (1978) Dir Irwin Allen.

What the hell was BBC Four thinking? :pac: (for some reason they screened the extended version which clocks in at a bum numbing 155 mins)

One of a pair of famously bad Michael Caine led, Allen directed disastrous movies released in '78 (the other being Beyond the Poseidon Adventure), African killer bees invade the south west USA and its a race against time and terrible dialogue to find a way to stop these deadly foreigners. Some hilarious aspects including the revelation that a scientist who prays under pressure is clearly trustworthy in the eyes of a previously hostile hard-ass general (Richard Widmark doing his usual thing) who may also be a racist (he keeps referring the the threat as African rather than bees or African bees)

The swarm effects are dismal, the science is probably the most interesting aspect. It felt like they tried to be accurate in the way one might try to deal with the threat in many respects. Back in the late 70s there was a genuine fear that African killer bees could pose a hazard to the USA. If you want to see a good film on this subject watch the much seen TV movie The Savage Bees made a couple of years earlier and so rendering Allens all star turkey pointless anyway.