What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

david75

What we do in the shadows
A mockumentary from New Zealand about some vampire housemates. Some laughs. Worth a watch.

david75

Foxcatcher
Some amazing performances all round. Don't know if they're Oscar worthy but certainly Carrell's performance is a memorable one.

tunguska

Django Unchained

I dont know what I was doing the first time around when I saw this, I mustve been distracted or something because I remember thinking that it was a good movie, nothing amazing though...........but on second viewing I think this is a great film. The performances are universally brilliant. I know Christoph waltz won the oscar and all but Don Johnson shouldve won some kind of award for his cameo. That scene with the bags for the lynch mob was worth the price of admission alone. But I think overall what stood out was the dialogue. I was never a fan of Tarantino's dialogue from his early films like pulp fiction, it just struck me as overly knowing and contrived, but over the years his style has adapted and developed to the point where his dialogue is witty and sharp but also very efficient and not wasteful like I think a lot of it was before.

Schadenfreudia

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Caught this on Channel 4 this morning (yeah - I'm not busy these days!)

Again - never seen it before. OK, but hardly the stuff of legend. Mickey Rooney's "funny" Jap character was terrible.

Never realised "Moon River" originated on this film soundtrack; Hepburn was cute & brilliant, and Peppard was handsome and good.

Still, I'd not give it more than 6.5/10.

Romantic comedies (and the comedy is at a premium here) not my favourite unless Jennifer Aniston is in them - maybe only because she's in them!

Del.Monte

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Netflix must the greatest thing since the sliced pan......

Over Christmas been catching up on famous films I've never seen before, the latest

Fargo (1996)

No point reviewing these as you'll all have seen them, unlike me! This is an 8/10.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

I'd go 9/10 with this one....

Now, I've been toying for months with watching another well-known one, Forest Gump - I think the trailer put me off back in the day (and ever since).

Is it worth a peep?

Love Fargo and Shawshank and yes, you really should watch Forest Gump!

david75

Obvious Child
Indie up the yeehaw but funny and enjoyable and great performances. Really liked the lead actress. She played a blinder

Calvary
Brendan Gleeson. The man is such an amazing actor. The rest of this is a bit through a spyglass stereotypical to ramped up fantastical of people found in small Irish towns, but otherwise thoroughly enjoyed this.

expectationlost

Marooned the 1969 film about astronauts stuck in space, including Gene Hackman that partly inspired Alfonso's Gravity, though I found it because it was directed by John Sturges, its very slow, but trying to find ~70's scifi films to watch.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064639/combined

j.s. pill II

Rob the Mob (2014)

Wasn't too taken by the premise - Mafia romp where Bonnie & Clyde type couple hold up New York mobsters - but I really enjoyed this one in the end.

Nice balance between grit, stylisation and comedy.

Mizu_Ger

Invaders from Mars (1986)
I don't know how Tobe Hooper convinced anyone to give him money to make this. Complete rubbish. For an alien invasion film there's no sense of fear or terror and the storyline is ridiculous. The only redeeming quality is the terrible acting. The guy playing the General is hilariously bad.

Lucy
This didn't make much sense to me. With these kind of films you need to buy into the whole premise up front or else you'll just think the whole thing's ridiculous. This has a lot in common with Transcendence, but I found the latter more plausible.

Before I go to Sleep
Started off interestingly. As it proceeded I found myself guessing who was and wasn't telling the truth, but by the end I didn't really care! It wasn't really bad or really good, just a bit ordinary. Mark Strong uses his "Who do you think you are?" narrating voice all the way through!

gucci

Machete Kills 2013

A Follow up to machete and it takes up from where it left off!! Just to be clear it is not important to have watched the original to watch this. It's a good laugh and probably a bit overcooked at times, but it's great entertainment. Probably a 6/10 for me.

Turtyturd

Kick-Ass 2: Haven't read the comic so I don't know how true to the source material it is, but given the OTT violence, and humour there's some of Mark Millar's influence in there. Didn't quite reach the heights of the first one for me, and the decision to feature both Kick-Ass and Hit Girl as the main characters due to her popularity in the first one didn't really work out.

Tony EH

Mizu_Ger wrote: »

Invaders from Mars (1986)
I don't know how Tobe Hooper convinced anyone to give him money to make this. Complete rubbish.

'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' gave Tobe Hooper a meal ticket for waaaaay longer than it should have.

Sam Mac

The Rover. Superb.

Worth it for the performances alone. There are some fantastic films coming out of Australia/NZ of late.

This, along with The Hunter, and Snowtown are among some of the best films I have seen this past year or two.

---

Also saw Night at the Museum 3 in the cinema last night. It was grand, nothing amazing. The great cast make it worth the watch for sure though. Really enjoyed Dan Stevens as Lancelot and Hugh Jackman's cameo.

Irish Aris

There Will Be Blood

Saw it last night for the first time.
For me, this was a case of the whole being less than the sum of its parts.
I loved the use of music throughout the film, especially in the first 15-20 minutes where there is no dialogue.
Beautiful cinematography, great use of lighting, both internally and externally.
Another amazing performance by Daniel Day Lewis.

But I can say that only liked it, not really enthusiastic about it. I'd put it down to the story/screenplay which didn't keep me very interested and (possibly) to the fact that it was a bit long.

The Strawman Argument

My Night at Maud's
It really should have been an insufferably boring slog, watching a bunch of people discuss their philosophies and whatnot, but somewhere along the way I started loving it. The main scene of the film is something else altogether, the way the relationship between the characters develops, how their actions relate to their words, absolute treat. Probably have to read a few articles about it before I can say any more to be honest, pleasantly surprised anyways!


Rich Hill
I get the negative reviews, it provides pretty much no solid insight whatsoever beyond "these people have crappy lives and there's a heap of reasons why they're not going to get any better, this is sad". Arguably an exploitative element in how it portrays the people involved and the David Gordon Green vibes to the direction may put some people further off too.
That being said, I feel like the different approach was a good effort. It certainly got a lot closer to making their lives relatable than any similar documentaries that I can think of; no clue if I've ever seen any clip from anything ever involving lower class white America where I've thought "that's like my family" before and it certainly made me rethink some things about people I met in a place quite like Rich Hill a few years back. It managed to get some aspects of their difficulties across a lot better than similar documentaries have done imo too.

There's a bit of a rant I was about to do here about comparing it to Streetwise but that's really a different thing altogether.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

The Best Years of Our Lives

Three American soldiers return from WW2 with a variety of scars and struggle to readjust to civilian life. It's a tad long for my liking, I started to loose interest by the end but it's an interesting film. The fact it was made in 1946 amazed me. I would have thought at that point all the WW2 films would have been heavy on the propaganda celebrating the returning heroes and all that. I'd love to know what kind of reaction this got on it's initial release.

Anyway... it's worth a watch. I don't usually like these very old films for a variety of reasons but other than being slightly overlong (for me) this one is pretty good.

tunguska

The Help

Caught this last night on the bosca and I thought it was decent enough. Some great acting from everyone involved though. Bryce Dallas Howard was brilliant, Ive seen her in other films where she plays the good girl but bloody hell she was so good as the uber bitch. I know Octava spencer walked off with the oscar, and she is great, but For me Jessica Chastain was amazing. Ive seen her in a few things now and shes definitely in a different league to most actresses knocking around hollywood.
Good movie overall though.

The Strawman Argument

I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
Didn't know American talkies were able to look as good as some of the scenes in this film! Mostly pretty good, not very dated at all for an early sound film ...not exactly a whole lot to say about it but worth checking out!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I'd love to know what kind of reaction this got on it's initial release.

Pretty much swept the board at the Oscars and was a big commercial success.

I believe the idea was originally conceived by a studio head so there'd have been a very strong backing behind it. The director, William Wyler actually served during the war, shooting documentaries at very close range, he (temporarily?) lost his hearing and lost some crew members. As a result, he was probably extremely passionate about the project; think he insisted on including the guy who lost his hands and casting an actual veteran to play him.

Harry Palmr

William Wyler made the original "Memphis Belle" documentary - The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn8tqacRXK4

The Black Oil

Runaway Jury

Courtroom drama based on a John Grisham novel. Hollywood and the debate about guns are rarely a good mix, with this time being no exception. This has a strong cast. Gene Hackman is there to rally the troops. Other than that, he shouts at his team, or breaks/kicks things. Rachel Weisz I felt was good value. Whilst it's got a few daft scenes you can throw aside I thought it was mostly disappointing. This is perhaps symptomatic of much of John Cusack's career in general (burn). I would have like to see more time with the jury (there is some) than more courtroom ping pong. For a more compelling study of the effects of underhand tactics and witness intimidation see Michael Mann's The Insider.

BlutendeRabe

The Counselor
Ridley Scott's much maligned thriller about five flashy automatons who get caught up in a drug deal gone bad.
Tbh I can't really flaw the acting or the particular setting (I've a fondness for the American South West
and the Amexicana border).
The dialogue and the overall plot is what really brings the film down. Its clunky, unrealistic and there's way too
much of it for a thriller. The plot is a muddle especially towards the end while the characters are just unoriginal dullards.
You can apply the Cabin in the Woods Archetypes to them: Cameron Diaz is the whore, Penelope Cruz is the virgin, Bardem
is the athlete, Pitt is the scholar while Fassbender is the fool.

Cant help but think though that it would've been much better as a novel. As a film its a failure.

Harry Palmr

Frenzy 1972 Dir Alfred Hitchcock

The Masters unexpected return to his home town sees his final real flourish (Family Plot was a very modest film) as innocent man is nicked while the real "neck-tie killer" continues his deeds. Obviously not prime time Hitch but with several nice scenes esp the DIs dinners at home as he discusses the case with his wife who has discovered the joys of fancy French cuisine much to the coppers quiet but polite horror. Plenty of other mordant moments of humour.

Tony EH

It's one of the few films from Hitchcock that I can actually watch now.

jcsoulinger

BlutendeRabe wrote: »

The Counselor
Ridley Scott's much maligned thriller about five flashy automatons who get caught up in a drug deal gone bad.
Tbh I can't really flaw the acting or the particular setting (I've a fondness for the American South West
and the Amexicana border).
The dialogue and the overall plot is what really brings the film down. Its clunky, unrealistic and there's way too
much of it for a thriller. The plot is a muddle especially towards the end while the characters are just unoriginal dullards.
You can apply the Cabin in the Woods Archetypes to them: Cameron Diaz is the whore, Penelope Cruz is the virgin, Bardem
is the athlete, Pitt is the scholar while Fassbender is the fool.

Cant help but think though that it would've been much better as a novel. As a film its a failure.

I can see most of your points but I still really enjoyed "The Counselor" I'd go as far as saying its one of the better films I've seen all year. I don't think the plot was a muddle although it did require my complete attention. As far as the characters being unoriginal, I don't agree, to boil down the Diaz character to "the whore" is particularly harsh.

I'm a sucker for drug traffic movies in general so maybe my opinion is skewed.

BlutendeRabe

jcsoulinger wrote: »

I can see most of your points but I still really enjoyed "The Counselor" I'd go as far as saying its one of the better films I've seen all year. I don't think the plot was a muddle although it did require my complete attention. As far as the characters being unoriginal, I don't agree, to boil down the Diaz character to "the whore" is particularly harsh.

I'm a sucker for drug traffic movies in general so maybe my opinion is skewed.

I couldn't figure out how they managed to get Cruz's character while Fassbender was able to just into Ciudad Juarez to find out what happened. I had assumed that the Cartel hit team weren't informed that the shipment had been recovered. But why would the cartel leave a loose end like Fassbender's character alive

I'd enjoy drug traffic film like yourself and there's something about that part of the world I find oddly enthralling. Bolano's novel 2666 is set in Cuidad Juarez and covers Los feminicidios which is discussed in the film (along with the theory that they were victims of a particularly well connected snuff film maker). Ed Vulliamy wrote a very good non-fiction book, Amexica, about the cartel war along the border while McCarthy's No Country for Old Men revolves around a drug deal gone sour, although 30 years earlier. Most of McCarthy's novels are set in the American Southwest and deals with the death, violence and greed that that area brings out in the people who work and live there.

jcsoulinger

BlutendeRabe wrote: »

I couldn't figure out how they managed to get Cruz's character while Fassbender was able to just into Ciudad Juarez to find out what happened. I had assumed that the Cartel hit team weren't informed that the shipment had been recovered. But why would the cartel leave a loose end like Fassbender's character alive

I'd enjoy drug traffic film like yourself and there's something about that part of the world I find oddly enthralling. Bolano's novel 2666 is set in Cuidad Juarez and covers Los feminicidios which is discussed in the film (along with the theory that they were victims of a particularly well connected snuff film maker). Ed Vulliamy wrote a very good non-fiction book, Amexica, about the cartel war along the border while McCarthy's No Country for Old Men revolves around a drug deal gone sour, although 30 years earlier. Most of McCarthy's novels are set in the American Southwest and deals with the death, violence and greed that that area brings out in the people who work and live there.

They may kill him eventually but for now they realize he's in a state worse than death.

david75

Tried again to watch the Godfather II last night. Just cant get into it at all.

that trilogy is lost on me entirely.

massy086

david75 wrote: »

Tried again to watch the Godfather II last night. Just cant get into it at all.

that trilogy is lost on me entirely.

shame on you lol

david75

i know right? i have this with a few films and different things..always feel like i'm missing out on something but try as I might I just dont enjoy em, and feel like its my loss, despite wanting to enjoy em.
That said I do have friends whove never seen lets say star wars, and refuse to watch em, and i always think they're total knuckleheads:)

david75

Albert Nobbs is on...period piece set in Dublin..gonna give it a whirl