What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

johnny_ultimate

Jour de Fete / Les Vacances de M. Hulot - The cinematic and comedic precision of Jacques Tati continues to astound me. Every shot feels like it has been filmed and edited near obsessively to maximise its impact. Even if the director's vision would reach something approaching transcendence with his later films, these earlier works are still a joy to behold. Cheeky deconstructions of post-war French society, affectionate studies of communities and obviously full of laughs and ingenious setpieces. Not quite as rich in set design and scope as Mon Oncle and Playtime, these smaller scale films nonetheless have a charm and genius all of their own. And there's a wonderful sense of escalating scale across these films - from the countryside of Jour de Fete to the dystopian metropolis of Playtime. In terms of cinema comedy there is Keaton, Chaplin, Tati, and then everybody else.

Bird People - Intriguing, quirky drama with an unusual twist on expectations I shall not expand on much. Set almost entirely in an airport hotel, two lost souls experience personal revelations of a sort. The film is at its best when it allows the stories' nuances and subtleties to speak for themselves, while other times it feels like it underlines the thematic concerns and character beats too much. One of the two sections suffers from the common problem of a director directing actors while not sharing a native tongue - the predominantly English-language section focusing on Josh Charles' character feels stilted and unconvincing at times in terms of performances. Still, an engaging and often successful film, particularly noteworthy for its unique use of drone photography - something we will likely see more of, but unlikely in as unusual a context as this.

Life Itself - A moving and intimate portrait of Roger Ebert from Hoop Dreams director Steve James. A fairly bog-standard bio-docu in many ways, it overcomes that potential limitation thanks to its brutally honest footage of Ebert during his last months and some excellent contributors (a shame Herzog doesn't narrate the whole thing). The Ebert & Siskel material is also priceless, although would have loved the actual clips to play out for longer without narration or interviews intruding. While there's a lot of gushing praise here - Scorsese basically credits Ebert & Siskel with saving his life - it manages to avoid being mere hagiography. Space is given to those who contest Ebert's popularity actually damaged film criticism in certain respects, and it doesn't gloss over the likes of his alcoholism or sometimes egotistical tendencies (especially when it came to Siskel). Still, it cannot help but emerge as a touching and powerful tribute to a colourful, charismatic and hugely influential individual. Above all, though, it's about somebody who truly loved cinema. That final blog post, repeated here, still packs on heck of a punch.

batnolan

Mr.Brooks (2007)

Kevin Costner and William Hurt have an engaging charismatic relationship. Plot quickly unravels and loses the run of itself though. Costner plays a serial killer. Still would recommend for Costner and Hurt's partnership.

The Queen of Versailles (2012)

Absorbing and sad documentary. 78 year old multimillionaire and his nouveau riche trophy wife. They embark on building the biggest house in America only for the economic crash of 2008 to happen. The aftermath of the crash you see that their wealth was/is an illusion, a mirage, built on debt. With the finance side of things unraveling, the transparity of the actual social relationships between the family shows itself and it isn't pretty.

Great documentary

cursai

Is gone girl a black comedy? Just watched it there.

Nerdlingr

Captain America : Winter Soldier

Enjoyable enough ol romp. Not too sure with the whole marvel universe where this fits in in the time line...when does he become friends with black widow? Think its about 2 hours long and trots away at a nice pace. Yer man captain america though, the actor, is it me or has he got this weird shaped head/face??? :P Few twists and turns in the plot as well to keep the story fresh. He's some man for one man Captain America!! As a superhero movie its pretty solid - 8/10

mikemac1

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I completely missed these first time around. I'm aware the books were famous but I never read those either. I know these films were spectacularly successful for earning $$$ but I failed to see the hype.

I think the whole backstory for the rebellion could have been explained a bit better. I know they need to edit down the books but there wasn't a lot of info there.

I liked the ending to the second film but I doubt I'll go to see the current film that's in the cinema now.

Not good, not bad, 5/10

Tipsy McSwagger

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Defenders of the Galaxy

Watchable junk. :rolleyes:

You should check out Guardians of the Galaxy, much better film.

OldeCinemaSoz

The Purge: ANTICRY

Yeah, very generic and simple, but a delight. If you DUMB DOWN of your
viewing then a film like this could be very UP YOUR STREET.

personally,I'm in more favour of Robert Ginty's DIRTY DINGUS MCGEE and I am of
Paul kerseys. Long live Mr Eastland.

cursai

OldeCinemaSoz wrote: »

The Purge: ANTICRY

Yeah, very generic and simple, but a delight. If you DUMB DOWN of your
viewing then a film like this could be very UP YOUR STREET.

personally,I'm in more favour of Robert Ginty's DIRTY DINGUS MCGEE and I am of
Paul kerseys. Long live Mr Eastland.

(non Smug) the purge: anarchy i think you mean. but otherwise you were right on all points

cursai

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

You should check out Guardians of the Galaxy, much better film.

No, he was right the first time.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Run And Jump

Purely by accident I've been watching a lot of Irish films this month.

This was maybe the best of them?

A family struggles to adjust to life with a brain damaged husband/dad and things aren't helped by the presence of a psychologist who is studying the man's recovery for a paper he's writing about strokes.
It's an alright film, I'm not sure the psychologist guy was necessary but I suppose he was supposed to be the "in" for the audience maybe? Other than that it's an interesting look at a family struggling to adjust to a new version of someone they loved showing up. The relationship between the father and his kids was more interesting to me than the other stuff but they didn't really delve too deeply into that. I still don't really get why he took such a dislike to the son?

My one issue, and it's not just with this film, is casting. Maxine Peake plays the wife. I love Maxine Peake, she's brilliant. What bugs me though is she seems to be doing a bit of an Irish accent but then there's a line in there that maybe suggests she's not Irish so it must just be that she's picked up a bit of a twang. That's fine and all but there's absolutely no relevance to her being Irish here. She's married into the Casey's, none of her own family appear, so why not just let her be English and use her own accent? The director said in an interview that she wanted Peake and only Peake from the beginning, which is fine, but if you're so set on the one person and they really don't need to do an accent, why make them do an accent?

It's late, I'm rambling. It does annoy me though.

Tony EH

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Fury

'Fury' starts off well enough, but lamentably falls prey to cliche and insulting stupidity, with a final section that borders on the absolute absurd, even for Hollywood.

Some people may think that this is a realistic depiction of war, but 'Fury' is anything but. If you know what to look out for, it's shortcomings are all too obvious. In fact, I think even if you haven't a clue about war, you'll have a hard time accepting some of the content. 'Fury' asks the viewer to overcome quite a bit of logic and reason.

There are very few Second World War films (especially from Hollywood) that have any right speaking for the history of that conflict and 'Fury' joins their ranks, which is unfortunate, because with a little caution, it could have been one of the greats and occupied the same space as 'Das Boot', 'Tora, Tora, Tora' or 'A Bridge Too Far'. Ultimately, its weaknesses drop it in the same bin as 'Windtalkers', or 'The Battle of the Bulge' and while it doesn't descend to the bottom of that bin where 'U-571' and 'Pearl Habor' reside, it contains enough tripe to relegate it to a "what could have been" status.

On a positive note, all of the actors put in decent performances, with Jon Berethal acting as a "Shane" in WWII, and mad, mad, Shia LeBoeuf giving a ok show as a Bible thumping god believer. But, it's young Logan Lerman that steals the piece as the sympathetic fish out of water. In the end though, there's a level of cliche that permeates throughout the characters that's impossible to ignore and yes...Brad Pitt (at 50) is waaaay too old to play a tank commander in WWII, from any country.

The best thing about 'Fury' is, of course, the tanks and if you like reading about or looking at WWII tanks there's quite a bit to get out of it visually. There were ten functional and semi functional M4 shermans on offer which make up the bulk of armour on screen. But the standout metal beast is Bovington's fully functional (the only one in the world) Tiger (131). Although this Tiger is actually an early version (captured in North Africa), it works well enough here. It's a pity, then, that she's wasted in a quite ridiculous scene that ends up being laughable, rather than dramatic.

However, among the silliness, there are some good scenes, the best of which is a "breaking in" exercise involving Pitt and Lerman that rightly leaves a bad taste in ones mouth. But, these scenes are far too few and far between and drown is sea of face palms.

The conclusion, though, rips out the few feathers that 'Fury' may have put in its own cap with a spectacularly bad ending. An ending which, from its initial set up, paints a far too obvious picture of nonsensical Hollywood heroics, that simply wouldn't have happened in real life, nor would it needed to have happen. The bottom line is Bradly gets his (almost) entire crew killed in an incredibly stupid and wholly unnecessary way.

'Fury' ends up being yet another huge, but at this point expected, Hollywood WWII disapointment, where the idiotic (and in some cases questionably creepy) scenes outweigh the good scenes and drag any potential the film may have had into the quagmire that is Hollywood War II.


3/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGvZoIrXpg

dreamers75

Dracula Untold expected 1 out of 5 got 3 out of 5. Its not that bad, and if its a trilogy as expected could be decent.

Irish Aris

The Turin Horse

I have never seen a Bela Tarr film before (always had this idea that he would be too "arty" for my liking), The Turin Horse is on Netflix (for another 2-3 days) and has positive reviews everywhere.

Although there is very little happening (we just see a few days in the life of an old man and his daughter who live in an isolated house, same things happening every single day), I found this very interesting and intriguing and I was never bored during the two and a half hours.
-The film is done in long takes that last anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes (possible longer on occasion).
-The almost complete absence of dialogue. Music plays a pivotal part on substituting this. Also sound becomes important - it gave me the feeling that there wasn't much editing from that aspect, the film sounds so real.
-The black and white photography that enhances the feeling of isolation.
-Even though the sequence of events is pretty much the same, Tarr changes the angle that he shoots the scenes, so the scenes actually get a different dynamic each time.

Not a film that I would wholeheartedly recommend, but if you can see past the slow pace, this is quite interesting.

e_e

Seconding all of the above. That film beat me down but in a very good way.

I can't recommend Werckmeister Harmonies enough though, one of the very best films that's been made in this century.

Bipolar Joe

Jungleground (1995)

Lt. Jake Cornell has to fight his way out of Jungleground, a dystopian part of the city, after his sting operation goes bad and he's caught by up and coming head honcho, Young Odin. He has until dawn to make it home, or Odin will kill his fiancée.

I've been on a Roddy Piper movie bender the last week and a half, and this one was great. Like a super low budget mixture of The Warriors meets Escape From New York. The low budget doesn't really show, though. Some nice explosions, decent acting and camera work makes this an easy film to watch and enjoy. Piper is just great in the role, it really suits him, and the sardonic one liners are great. Also he does an impression of Elmer Fudd.

It's not the most original of movies, but it's not as over the top as other films in the style, probably due to the budget, which does help make it a bit more believable. Out of all the Rowdy Roddy Piper movies I've watched lately, this is the best one. 7 / 10.

batnolan

Jack Reacher (2012)

I thought this would be a light entertaining movie. It takes itself seriously at the start then incorporates jokes that don't have good timing or just seem out of place in the context of the scene. Odd film.

4/10

david75

Has anyone else seen the Signal?

that ending...an Interstellar crossover?
wasn't sure what to make of the ending whatsoever..

Ciaran_B

These Final Hours.

An Australian end of the World drama. About a guy trying to decide how to spend his last six hours on Earth. He rescues a little girl and takes her a sex and drugs filled party. Things spiral from there.

I thought this was really good. It did nothing new but it achieved what it set out to do. I like a good apocalypse drama and this is full of beautiful shots of empty streets and towns. And has a great atmosphere of end of the world fatalism. Very Mad Max.

The two leads are excellent, it looks really nice and it doesn’t over stay its welcome. I saw another Australian apocalypse drama The Rover earlier this year which felt quite similar to this.

Recommended.
3.5/5

Mizu_Ger

david75 wrote: »

Has anyone else seen the Signal?

that ending...an Interstellar crossover?
wasn't sure what to make of the ending whatsoever..

I was disappointed by this. It is a bit half baked (the film as a whole). The ending felt

like it was ripped from Dark City

. It wasn't very original and I was expecting something more after all the build up.

I though it was great when he started running across the bridge at high speed, but that fizzled out immediately when he broke through to the outside

Schadenfreudia

The Purge - Anarchy (again)

Good stuff, maybe not as unlikely as some imagine.

There is potential for at least two more decent films here before someone deals with the Founding Fathers!

Thepoet85

12 Angry Men

Great film. Heard of it before but never go round to watching it. Very enjoyable. 8/10

johnny_ultimate

Timbuktu - Abderrahmane Sissako directs this exploration of the occupation of Timbuktu by jihadists.

This is a very powerful and deeply humane film. It's a passionate ode to individuals and freedom. Sissako creates moments that elegantly and devastatingly reveal how unnatural it is to live in a world where expression is prohibited - from football to music. While there are some moments that reveal incidences of violence, they are brief and disturbingly casual, making their impact all the stronger. It's stunningly shot, too, many images really earning that old phrase of a terrible beauty.

Yet while the director is clearly critical of the militants' impact on the rural societies they have decided to take over, they too are portrayed as human beings with real passions, frustrations and fears, not faceless 'others'. The film's empathy is near boundless. This is sedate, intelligent filmmaking, and one that's a vital contrast to the more alarmist, ethically dubious efforts that tackle similar subject matter.

Thepoet85

Gravity

Poor film and poor dialogue. Only saw it in 2D, I'd imagine it was only made for 3D viewing.

4/10

batnolan

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Double crossing, double double crossing leaves poor Ethan Hunt in an inexplicable position in which there can only be an inexplicable solution. Enjoyable first half of the movie with the tone and atmosphere proving to be a nice sensory tonic. The movie completely disintegrates any resemblance of a movie at that knows what it is doing so that it can incorporate some action stunt sequences.

Enjoyable first half. Can't believe it is only a PG. If that movie was made today it would be guaranteed to get a 12 rating. A shame because for a pg movie it's enjoyable.

batnolan

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Double crossing, double double crossing leaves poor Ethan Hunt in an inexplicable position in which there can only be an inexplicable solution. Enjoyable first half of the movie with the tone and atmosphere proving to be a nice sensory tonic. The final act of the movie completely disintegrates any resemblance of a movie at that knows what it is doing so that it can incorporate some action stunt sequences.

Enjoyable first half. Can't believe it is only a PG. If that movie was made today it would be guaranteed to get a 12 rating. A shame because for a pg movie it's enjoyable.

gucci

Blue Ruin (2013)

Billed as an old fashioned revenge movie, but to me it was a little bit edgier than that! The key to this movie is the pace, it rambles along at a leisurely pace, never really peaking or never really dipping, yet a lot of stuff actually happens. actor that plays Dwight, the main character is the key here as he puts on a great show, his expression and movements are often the parts that tell the story of the movie more than the actual dialogue. Cracking final scene too. It might sound funny but I found this movie refreshingly bleak!! I will look forward to watching this again in a few months 8/10.

Turtyturd

Whiplash

Didn't like it as much as Johnny Ultimate, and as I was watching it wasn't really impressed with it, but the more I think about it over the last few days, the more I enjoyed it.

As said Simmons is immense, walking the line perfectly between someone pushing their students to better themselves and pushing them to the point of abuse. I was also surprised by Teller who I had pinned as Jonah Hill-lite after 21 and over.

Probably worth going to see just for the

'I know it was you.' line at the beginning of the final scene, even though I suspected it was coming it's still a gut punch, and it's been a long time since I heard such a collective gasp in the cinema.

j.s. pill II

gucci wrote: »

Blue Ruin (2013)

Billed as an old fashioned revenge movie, but to me it was a little bit edgier than that! The key to this movie is the pace, it rambles along at a leisurely pace, never really peaking or never really dipping, yet a lot of stuff actually happens. actor that plays Dwight, the main character is the key here as he puts on a great show, his expression and movements are often the parts that tell the story of the movie more than the actual dialogue. Cracking final scene too. It might sound funny but I found this movie refreshingly bleak!! I will look forward to watching this again in a few months 8/10.

Great film - thanks for the recommendation

PandyAndy

Left Behind

...

Fúcking hell. What on earth was Nic Cage thinking when he signed up for this. The entire movie is shít. The dialogue is crap, the acting is crap.

The rapture comes and everyone disappears and blah blah blah they land the plane in the end and everyone is happy. That's it really.

I don't why I stuck with it.

3.2 on imdb. I'd give it less.

batnolan

Mission Impossible 2

Awful. Absolutely awful. Worst movie I have seen in a while. Garbage. Woeful. Awful. Disgusting. Yuck Yuck Yuck.