What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

Love You More
The short that got Sam Taylor-Johnson the Fifty Shade of Grey job, I assume. I really liked it, nothing at all gratuitous and some nice... ehh... focusing(?) throughout, could've been obnoxious (especially with the structure of the main scene) but managed to be quite cute. She probably could do a really good feature length if she had better material to work off of.

Nowhere Boy is pretty good....

Ipso

Turtyturd wrote: »

Gone Girl: This is a really like two movies joined together. The first half is a real good whodunit which had me jumping from theory to theory but once you

get to the reveal of Amy's disappearance it just goes downhill and becomes a series of more ridiculously OTT scenes. I had heard that there was a good twist in the end but even that revelation was flat because you never truly believed Nick was going to unveil her.

The use of music throughout it is very jarring, particularly in the flashback scenes.

I found it to be very meh, I'd also heard about it having a twist and wasn't surprised after the reveal.
I also don't think Pike deserved an Oscar nomination.

limnam

Sightseers 2012

I hadn't read anything about this before hand so missed all the hyperbole and all the better for it.

Really enjoyed this little black comedy it's only March but the best film I've seen so far this year. Could have done with a few more comedic moments fleshed out a bit otherwise a great watch.

Arkaron

Tony EH wrote: »

Well, personally, I wouldn't class any martial arts film as great, but anyway. The dubbing in those certainly adds some comic value.

Really, none? Out of the thousands of martial arts films ever made in the world, you think there isn't a single one that could be considered great in your opinion? Once Upon a Time in China? Fearless? The Blade? A Touch of Zen? The Sword? Wu Xia? Swordsman 2? New Dragon Gate Inn?

(Matrix? Kill Bill?)

Turtyturd

Ipso wrote: »

I found it to be very meh, I'd also heard about it having a twist and wasn't surprised after the reveal.
I also don't think Pike deserved an Oscar nomination.

I am unsure if it was a sh*te performance or a good performance of a sh*te character.

iomega

Buffalo 66. I seen it a good few times now. It just a great film, one of my favourites.

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

Harry Palmr

Byzantium (2012) Dir Neil Jordan.

Thanks to Status Quo! Seriously in the end credits. Wonder what that was all about

Jordan back in moody fantasy land, a bit too long and winding but well performed and filmed. Gemma Arterton can flounce about in her undies all day as far as I'm concerned.

ButtersSuki

Stone starring Edward Norton, Robert DeNiro and Milla Jovovich, recorded from Film 4 last week. A film I had somehow heard absolutely nothing about since it was released but all 3 deliver relatively good performances in this slow moving drama. It's so slow at times, so dialogue-driven and all the shooting effectively takes place in 3 or 4 locations that I suspect it could easily be a play (perhaps it is/was, I didn't check). Norton in particular shines in the kind of role he was meant to play - loner/outcast who appears on the outside to be misunderstood but really is a nasty little f*cker underneath it all. The first time we see him with his hair in corn rows and a strongly accented but seemingly weak-voiced character is one of those scenes where you really get to appreciate just how good an actor he is. DeNiro is DeNiro, but not as OTT as in other recent pursuits. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to, but if you're expected a thrill ride, this is not the movie for you. 7/10.

FloatingVoter

Black Sea: I know it got reviewed above. If you like sub movies, this is for you. The acting is top notch. Apart from Jude Law on a sub. This is grossly unfair to the man who hands in a top class performance but Jude Law on a bandit submarine ?
Apologies to all naval men out there who do not look like hungover crowbars.
It is however exactly how I would behave on a submarine which is probably why I failed all those psych tests.

9/10

Right Turn Clyde

'71. This was an effective action/thriller. It's a genre movie, not a political piece, but it makes good use of the popular understanding of what happened during that period, however inaccurate that may be. I can see why Mark Kermode said it's not a film about the Troubles, although personally I think there's a little more to it than that. My only real issue is with how the British military are portrayed; they're either incompetent or corrupt. Even if they were all like that in real life, the film would still have benefited from a better investigation of their circumstances and motivations. For example, there's one scene where Jack O'Connell's character admits that he doesn't know whether he's Catholic or Protestant, and I would have liked to have seen more of that type of thing. The Irish characters fair a little better, and as a result the film feels ever so slightly biased. But I'm Irish, so that's the way i like it.

Del.Monte

"In Order of Disappearance" (2014) on Netflix. English sub-titles.

Superb black comedy. Think "Fargo" (the movie) meets "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" set in snowy Norway and with bleak Scandinavian humour.

Nils Dickmann is a snow plough driver in Norway whose son gets murdered due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When Nils finds that the police are treating the case as a simple drug overdose he sets out to track down those responsible. Norwegian and Serbian drug gangs are in his sights and mayhem ensues. 10/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1-Fm3xx6gw

run_Forrest_run

I Saw the Devil - It was suggested on boards as some alternative horror/thriller movies...what awful rubbish. And at 2 hours 22 minutes I was hoping for some dramatic twist in the end to save it but no, it was pure muck.

adox

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

I Saw the Devil - It was suggested on boards as some alternative horror/thriller movies...what awful rubbish. And at 2 hours 22 minutes I was hoping for some dramatic twist in the end to save it but no, it was pure muck.

Jaysus, its a while since I`ve seen it but I thought it was fantastic.

johnny_ultimate

Escape from Tomorrow

Listen: at least they tried. The genesis of Escape from Tomorrow, shot surreptitiously in Disneyland, is admirable - a cheeky, playful way of breaking the rules of a location defined by order and rigidity.

Alas: the execution is less inspired. The - wisely - black & white cinematography mostly looks good given the circumstances (apart from some terribly obvious greenscreen work) and there's some surprisingly neat effects. Somewhere, buried deep, there's the hint of a solid satire, one that utilises the mythology and iconography of the supposed happiest place on the planet and twists them into a surreal and blackly comic nightmare. That film threatens to burst out from time to time.

But mostly the film is wildly uneven. The transitions between guerrilla realism and sci-fi fantasy never gel, and once the film moves into its wackier, darker final half hour it becomes a jumble of barely coherent ideas and visuals. The acting is understandably amateurish, but the broadness of the characterisation is less forgivable. Above all, the relentless sleaziness of the main character was pretty hard to stomach - and that scuzziness extends to the film itself as a result. Satire or not, the character and camera following two barely teenage French girls around for huge stretches of the running time borders on the creepy - even acknowledging there's some generally vague subtext buried in there.

As an example of corporate sabotage, Escape from Tomorrow is to be celebrated. As a film, sticking it to the man in the fairytale castle only gets director Randy Moore so far.

FloatingVoter

All the Birdman talk got me thinking about showbiz movies. So I'm giving State and Main a rewatch. Still the funniest little movie about movies of recent times. Philip Seymour Hoffmann, William H Macy, Alec Baldwin and other assorted sociopaths descend on small town America to create art.

Sugarlumps

Pacific Height - Hadn't seen this in yonkes, great thriller. Michael Keaton is really good in this.

Silver Bullet - Can't believe this film is 30 years old, was one of my favorites as a kid. Stars Busy & Corey Haim.

Godzilla - Steaming pile of...

Schadenfreudia

Sugarlumps wrote: »

Godzilla - Steaming pile of...

I'd agree if you are talking about the 2014 version; but I thought the 1998 version was rather good.

Though the rating agencies seem to go the other way - can't fathom how 2014 version is rated nearly 4/5 by the IMDb, R Tomatoes etc. - it really is a steaming pile; completely lacking the atmosphere and clean action of the '98 version.

And despite the advances in technology, the animation in '98 is way better than the 2014 effort.

Sugarlumps

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

I'd agree if you are talking about the 2014 version; but I thought the 1998 version was rather good.

Totally agree.

Pierce_1991

I was so looking forward to Godzilla last Summer, what a serious let down. The trailer had really looked epic. One of the big problems was

Bryan Cranston being killed off after like half an hour when he had been made to look like the main character in the trailer.

johnny_ultimate

They are both steaming piles of nothing in comparison to the surprisingly melancholic and allegorical original, despite their rather more advanced monster rendering farms.

IvaBigWun

Pierce_1991 wrote: »

I was so looking forward to Godzilla last Summer, what a serious let down. The trailer had really looked epic. One of the big problems was

Bryan Cranston being killed off after like half an hour when he had been made to look like the main character in the trailer.

This was enough for me to switch it off when it happened.

Del.Monte

Talking of 'steaming piles' I finally got around to watching "Calvary" (2014) - on Netflix.

Absolutely dire - a black comedy with no comedy and a cast of utterly dysfunctional people. Even the towering presence of Brendan Gleeson can't save this worthless production. -1/10

Still on the subject of steaming piles, I also had the misfortune to watch the BBC adaption of "The Lady Vanishes" (2013) - what a train wreck -sorry! Why anybody would attempt a remake of such a classic is beyond me and it says something when a b+w movie from 1938 is still infinitely superior.
2/10 - avoid!

The 1938 original directed by Alfred Hitchcock is available on promo DVD and can be found for .50c or so in many charity shops.

pixelburp

My OH was aghast to learn that growing up I never watched The Land Before Time, the 1988 Don Bluth film (though at 65 minutes it's scarcely that!). The phrase 'they don't make them like that anymore' sprung to mind because Land..., while utterly sweet and pitched squarely at kiddies, has buckets of darkness, death & abandonment in its moribund world (it seemed to be set in and around the end of the reign of dinosaurs) - far more than you'd ever see in today's fare. Toy Story 3 and Big Hero 6 may contain some adult themes here and there, but nothing like Land Before Time. The film actually left me feeling a little miserable afterwards!

Still an interesting watch, and what made the movie particularly intriguing was that Don Bluth's films at this point were made / animated in Ireland, having moved his studio over to Dublin in the 1980s and creating a boom period for animation on the island. It seemed the bubble was pretty brief, only lasting a few years as Bluth's films only had modest success and he eventually moved on to pastures new. However, I believe studios like Brown Bag Films trace their origins to this period so generally the film acted as a nice visualisation of a fascinating period in Irish cinema.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

^ I must have watched Land Before Time at least 100 times as a kid. No exaggeration. I cried every single time when Little Foot's tree star got squished and also the bit where he thinks he sees his mum but it's his own shadow.

pixelburp

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

^ I must have watched Land Before Time at least 100 times as a kid. No exaggeration. I cried every single time when Little Foot's tree star got squished and also the bit where he thinks he sees his mum but it's his own shadow.

Yeah, I'm 34 years old and I could have sworn someone was cutting onions nearby. I believe there are about a bazillion direct-to-DVD singalong sequels, but the original film is just ... dark. Full of positive messages about friendship, hope and diversity sure, but all around those messages is darkness and doom

ButtersSuki

'71 Drama set in 1971 Belfast when a newly-landed squaddie is left behind enemy (Catholic) lines and has to make his way home to the safety (or is it?) of the Army Barracks. It captures some things about Belfast/The Troubles/NI well (like the at times utter cluelessness and naivety of the very young squaddies and the collusion between the Loyalist Paramilitaries and certain factions of the British Army/Intelligence etc.) but others stretch from "imaginative" to farcical - like the early "running" scene (not a spoiler!) to the

failure of the SAS man to ensure the kid is killed with follow up rounds after his initial body shot

. As films about Northern Ireland and the Troubles go it's not bad, but there's a fair degree of license used here and the accents at times aren't very convincing (and with a Northern Protestant OH I know that accent!). Though I suspect it thinks it's neutral in it's prism, I found not to be more than a little Brit-biased. Still, it's a solid 6.5/10. Oh and half of Love/Hate is in it.

The Invisible War Documentary on the prevalence of sexual assault and particularly rape (male and female) in the US Military. Perhaps the thing that struck me most about this was the sheer scale of it - esp. when the suspected non-reported cases are allowed for. As you'd expect in this type of documentary there are some deeply personal and upsetting stories from individuals presented side by side with official responses which deal in generalities and by comparison look incredibly uncaring and lacking in compassion, empathy and even logic. 7/10.


Finally, a couple of docs from BBC's Storyville:

The 1.7 Billion Dollar Fraud Interesting insight into Japanese (corporate) culture and the fallout around the exposure of massive accounting fraud at Olympus. 6.5/10

India's Daughter tells of the gang rape and subsequent death of an Indian Medical Student in 2012. Whilst the post-rape attitudes and complete lack of remorse by the perpetrators is shocking in itself, the attitudes of their defense team (people you'd assume are well educated etc.) are literally, unbelievable. Currently banned in India and removed from youtube by request of the Indian Government, it is a deeply depressing tale and a horrible depiction of the misogynistic attitudes that prevail in India to this day. 7.5/10

cursai

Unbroken.
I sware to god i haven't ran long distance in two years but this film. God we are spoilt.

Tony EH

ButtersSuki wrote: »

The Invisible War Documentary on the prevalence of sexual assault and particularly rape (male and female) in the US Military. Perhaps the thing that struck me most about this was the sheer scale of it - esp. when the suspected non-reported cases are allowed for. As you'd expect in this type of documentary there are some deeply personal and upsetting stories from individuals presented side by side with official responses which deal in generalities and by comparison look incredibly uncaring and lacking in compassion, empathy and even logic. 7/10.

One of the best and most worrying documentaries I've seen in a long time. If the doc is to be taken at face value (and I've no reason to believe that it shouldn't), the volume of this type of offence that occurs among personnel that are supposed to be commrades is extremely saddening to say the least.

What it led me further ponder on was if sexual assault was that prevalent among personnel of the same side, one can only imagine how common an occurrence it must be in the middle of a war, where there is no real law.

I would be relatively well versed (as well as one can be) in the likes of this type of assault during the Second World War and the truly appalling behaviour of some Red Army personnel being outstanding among the major combatants. But, in a "modern" military force, the idea that this type of assault (and, worse, the subsequent hush hush afterwards) be so commonplace, especially among people who are trained to fight together, is awful.

Tony EH

cursai wrote: »

Unbroken.
I sware to god i haven't ran long distance in two years but this film. God we are spoilt.

R P McMurphy

Tony EH wrote: »

Ketamine legal for 24 hours