What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

jcsoulinger

fin12 wrote: »

ya but he started the altercation, saying all that nasty stuff about his wife and then jake went to fight him so thats when one of his crew fired a shot but he helped get rid of the weapon and he also said something derogatory about it to jake when they were fighting in the end, he was a scumbag as far as I could tell

.

Ya he was a dick no question, I just felt as the bad guy boxer he wasn't that bad.

He had every right to have a go at Jake, he wanted the fight and for what ever reason Jakes camp would not give it to him, what he said was bad but its just words. Jake was equally responsible as he made the first move in the altercation,let's not forget one of his crew was also carrying a gun. The worst thing was the guy that pulled the trigger got off Scott free.

The Black Oil

A Most Wanted Man. iirc, it got luke warm notices at the time.

Hoffman, and I think all the Americans (there's a few familiar faces), do some sort of accent. His is not a heavy German one, though I had up the volume just to grasp what he was saying. He's dishevelled, likes his smokes, a tipple and is very direct. He's the head of a small secretive intelligence unit. There's a real sense of desperation from the off and the intelligence/surveillance side is well done. Not much of Hamburg is shown on screen, but you do get a sense it's shot with a European type palette, as it were. Its similarities with Homeland are only in two respects. One, Islamic terrorism and two, it is full of psychological manipulation.

There were a few points that didn't fully work for me, '****, they're on to us' and some repetition, but in the main I enjoyed it. Hoffman's frustration was palpable and written all over his face. Worryingly, despite currently following True Detective, I couldn't remember Rachel McAdams' name even though she has a fairly central role here...

NachoBusiness

Max.

Jacknife meets Skippy.

Feels like one of those made for TV films you might happen upon as you flick through the True Movie channels one night, only it's not based on a true story, unsurprisingly.

Type of film that a whole family might go see I guess. 5/10 for what it is.

Chain Smoker

The Target Shoots First
Was up on Vimeo for free by the filmmaker, documentary about a guy's job with the Colombia Record Club. Mildly interesting document but pretty amateurish and insubstantial.

Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist
Somewhat baffling hagiography, had some nice moments of the dude going on some mental downhill runs but the blatant double standards going on. When you're trying to argue that he was undeservedly vilified for having to conform to a corrupt system, you probably shouldn't be taking jabs at other cyclists who done the exact same. It seemed to overstate his achievements quite a bit too.

Captain Phillips
Man, I love Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks as much as the next person, this started great but gradually bored the arse off me.

Manson (1973)
Severely dated documentary style, yields very little of interest and somehow manages to make the whole story really boring.

St Vincent
Light fluffy thing, it's grand but not really worth bothering with at all.




So, overall, I'm on a great run with films lately!

holystungun9

Only recently saw Scarface in a lovely old theatre. I loved it!

MagicMarker

Chain Smoker wrote: »

Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist
Somewhat baffling hagiography, had some nice moments of the dude going on some mental downhill runs but the blatant double standards going on. When you're trying to argue that he was undeservedly vilified for having to conform to a corrupt system, you probably shouldn't be taking jabs at other cyclists who done the exact same. It seemed to overstate his achievements quite a bit too.

Watched this myself last night. Yeah bit odd considering

he was doping

.

karaokeman

Girlhouse

Average horror flick with the main heroines reasons for doing what she does reasonably valid.

Blue is the Warmest Colour

Good film for tie-in with the gay liberation of recent years. Interesting angle on the character desire(s) to be "normal".

Serendipity

Good romance flick for Christmas and long flights to and from New York.

e_e

My Dinner With Andre

Can see myself revisiting this for years down the line. Wonderful film that is way more rich, engaging and intriguing than the premise (a 2 hour dinner conversation) would let on.

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

summonerm

Unfriended
-something new in the horror genre

BMMachine

e_e wrote: »

My Dinner With Andre

Can see myself revisiting this for years down the line. Wonderful film that is way more rich, engaging and intriguing than the premise (a 2 hour dinner conversation) would let on.

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

e_e

I'd buy it!

Mickeroo

Yeah, My Dinner With Andre is one of those films I've never seen but has been parodied and referenced so much over the years I feel like I have. The Graduate was the same before I watched it too.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

There's a Community episode which is an homage to My Dinner With Andre, fyi.

The Skeleton Twins I hardly ever do this, but I turned this off halfway through. What a misfire of a hot mess of a film. I'm still annoyed about it three days later.

bnt

I saw a Top Gear bit on the car in Johnny English Reborn, and the film was on Film4 today, so I thought I'd record it and take a look. Great fun overall, with plenty of physical comedy, and not only from Rowan Atkinson.

I like the way Johnny English subverts the typical James Bond action archetype e.g. the scene where's he's chasing a bad guy across the rooftops: the bad guy does everything the hard way, while Johnny takes the easy way. The bad guy climbs down scaffolding on the outside of a building, and Johnny takes the lift. If you do watch it, be sure to stay through the credits.

Chain Smoker

MagicMarker wrote: »

Watched this myself last night. Yeah bit odd considering

he was doping

.

It managed to pull of the quite impressive feat of making me go "now hang on a second, that's being a bit a bit unfair on poor Lance Armstrong there"

Mizu_Ger

Watched Micmacs over the weekend and hated it! I love Jeunet and Danny Boon, but I found this interminable. Too quirky for it's own sake. I wanted to switch off half way but wanted to see it through to the end. Hopefully their next films will be better.

don ramo

Watched State of Grace after reading about it over the films that never found an audience thread,

brilliant film, Sean Penn, Ed Harris and Gary Oldman, it literally came out the week before Goodfellas, so got lost in the Goodfellas hype,

well worth checking out if you havent seen it, or ever heard of it like me,

LCD

Get Hard: Found it to be fairly disappointing. No real laugh out loud moments & Will Ferrell didn't have his usual charm.

While We're Young: An ok film with some seriously annoying characters, though it was a bit of a play on all hipsters. Quite liked Ben Stiller's character

johnny_ultimate

The Wonders - beautiful film from Italian director Alice Rohrwacher. A subtle and affectionate yet largely unsentimental portrayal of a struggling family in rural Italy, making their living by producing honey on the family farm, seen through the perspective of the oldest daughter (Maria Alexandra Lungu). What's most impressive is the way Rohrwacher carefully weaves in magical-realist elements, leading to a quietly transcendent ending that is artfully ambiguous yet satisfyingly bittersweet at the same time. As confident in its more surreal moments as it is in its more down-to-Earth ones.

Rocks in My Pockets - an autobiographical animated film from director Signe Baumane, dealing with manic depression and mental illness. Baumane dives into her family history to come to terms with her own condition, and presents it with a deceptively jovial tone that masks what is quite a challenging and raw look at the subject matter.

The character animation is relatively crude, but Baumane weaves in plenty of stylistic flourishes (including what to be 'claymation' sets) that means the film has lots of character. Overall I'd compare it somewhat to a mix between It's Such a Beautiful Day and Persepolis. However its biggest problem for me was Baumane's ever-present voiceover, that lacks the poetry and emotional depth of ISABD's use of the same idea. Baumane's voice being ever present does making the whole thing seem even more personal, but TBH it's simply not a compelling or particularly engaging screen voice.

La Collectionneuse (The Collector) - compared to the above, the use of voiceover in Eric Rohmer's excellent 'moral tale' is much more interesting. It's comfortably familiar Rohmer stuff, despite being one of the earliest in his filmography. A hapless, bored group of relative youngsters. A summer holiday. A simple, understated yet artful visual style. What makes this one particularly fascinating though is that the protagonist Adrien (Patrick Bauchau) is constantly telling us what to think. It's a great example of an unreliable screen narrator, as he tries to persuade us his plan to woo young Haydee (Haydée Politoff) is as brilliant as he believes it is. It's not. Instead we get a fascinating insight into a vain, shallow and confused young man, with Rohmer constantly and playfully subverting our expectations of how romantic dynamics usually work on screen. Indeed Haydee, while remaining something of an enigma by design, is a far cry from a passive love interest, and there's a very good argument to be made that despite her young age she's far more self-assured than any of the desperate, arrogant men we encounter throughout the film. Adrien harks on about his convoluted masterplan and its various 'successes', but what makes it so fascinating is that it's clear to everyone else is that he's almost certainly not the one in control.

MadDog76

don ramo wrote: »

Watched State of Grace after reading about it over the films that never found an audience thread,

brilliant film, Sean Penn, Ed Harris and Gary Oldman, it literally came out the week before Goodfellas, so got lost in the Goodfellas hype,

well worth checking out if you havent seen it, or ever heard of it like me,

That's one of my all time favourite movies ....... must have watched it at least a dozen times .........

the shootout/showdown

at the end is theatre at it's cinematic best!

Looper007

don ramo wrote: »

Watched State of Grace after reading about it over the films that never found an audience thread,

brilliant film, Sean Penn, Ed Harris and Gary Oldman, it literally came out the week before Goodfellas, so got lost in the Goodfellas hype,

well worth checking out if you havent seen it, or ever heard of it like me,

A good film, worth watching for Gary Oldman totally out acting Sean Penn. Ed Harris is a great Villain and the shoot out in the bar at the end is tense. But this is Oldman's film all the way.

Gwynplaine

Watched Nightcrawler last night. Excellent movie, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Adamocovic

The Hunt (2012): Danish drama/thriller. Great film and would definitely recommend it.

Mizu_Ger

The Assassination of Jesse James...
Finally got around to watching this. Well worth waiting for! Performances are all excellent, especially Casey Affleck. Bard Pitt got better through the film as James character becomes more unhinged. The performances never felt false. The photography was great too. It didn't feel like 160 minutes.

One thing I didn't get was the blinking! The narrator mentions at the beginning that Jesse James blinked more than usual due to gritty eyes, but I didn't notice him blinking much at all. Was this just part of the legend? Something like the "unreliable narrator" technique?

Adamocovic

Mizu_Ger wrote: »

The Assassination of Jesse James...
Finally got around to watching this. Well worth waiting for! Performances are all excellent, especially Casey Affleck. Bard Pitt got better through the film as James character becomes more unhinged. The performances never felt false. The photography was great too. It didn't feel like 160 minutes.

One thing I didn't get was the blinking! The narrator mentions at the beginning that Jesse James blinked more than usual due to gritty eyes, but I didn't notice him blinking much at all. Was this just part of the legend? Something like the "unreliable narrator" technique?

Absolute brilliant film!! After watching that I am fully convinced Casey Affleck is a better actor than his brother, I know many would disagree. I hope he gets better roles, he's in an police film coming out next year with Harrellson and Aaron Paul so I'm crossing my fingers he puts in another great performance.

Tony EH

Adamocovic wrote: »

Absolute brilliant film!! After watching that I am fully convinced Casey Affleck is a better actor than his brother, I know many would disagree. I hope he gets better roles, he's in an police film coming out next year with Harrellson and Aaron Paul so I'm crossing my fingers he puts in another great performance.

They really wouldn't you know. :pac:

Chip Whitley

I watched Staten Island Summer on Netflix the other night. I'm a fan of all things 'Saturday Night Live' so gave this a go as it's a semi-autobiographical from SNL's head writer Colin Jost and stars a few current SNL people (Cecily Strong, Bobby Moynihan, Kate McKinnon, Mike O'Brien) and some SNL alumni (Fred Armisen, Will Forte). Also starring Graham Phillips, Zack Pearlman, Ashley Greene, Gine Gershon, Method Man, Vincent Pastore and Jim Gaffigan(!)

Something lacking from this film however. It was caught between being a poor Superbad copy and a funny, sweet coming of age story. It was really well shot, has some pretty witty stuff which at times elevated it beyond usual films of this genre but was a bit too long which is strange as I felt certain secondary storylines felt rushed and nonsensical at times. The editing let it down I feel.

I think you'd really have to be a fan of SNL or some of the other actors in it for me to recommend it to you. The main actress in it, Ashley Greene is horrendous though, nothing likeable about her at all.

Aidric

Watched Gomorrah for the second time. A brutally honest portrayal of the hopelessness with which the central characters find themselves. Unlike American tales of the mafia this doesn't attempt to glamorise the lifestyle but rather cuts to the grinding banality and brutality of running a drugs cartel.

I was very excited to see that the director Matteo Garrone released his first English language feature at this years Cannes festival. I know it's not prudent to get excited by trailers but this is a particular beautiful effort. It's called Tale of Tales and the trailer is age restricted so I won't post it here but check it out.

ButtersSuki

Writing from my hospital bed but posting on recent viewings:

Southpaw Hugely disappointing considering the hype. It struggles for not knowing what it wants to be - is it "The Champ 2" or "Rocky 7" or "Rocky find out his son is the kid in The Champ". Gyllenhaal is very good and continues his excellent recent run of form (I'm becoming a fan after a long and sustained dislike of him); while Forest Whitaker is as commanding on screen as ever. That said, the film really struggled to connect with me or me with it. It's ridiculous in parts

like JG's manager and trainers all jumping ship onto the "baddie's" side; being given 6 weeks to fight etc.

and very cliched in others and ultimately suffers greatly as a result. Overall, a very disappointing 5/10.

True Detective Season 2 I know a lot of people didn't enjoy this but I did an 8 episode binge watch over the weekend and of course it's not better than Season 1 (how could it be?), but I found it very good and interesting nonetheless. I think comparisons to S1 are unfair and even with that I left S2 with newfound respect for Vince Vaughan and Colin Farrell. I'd wrote a longer review but I'm too tired....... I'd give it an 8/10.

fin12

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Writing from my hospital bed but posting on recent viewings:

Southpaw Hugely disappointing considering the hype. It struggles for not knowing what it wants to be - is it "The Champ 2" or "Rocky 7" or "Rocky find out his son is the kid in The Champ". Gyllenhaal is very good and continues his excellent recent run of form (I'm becoming a fan after a long and sustained dislike of him); while Forest Whitaker is as commanding on screen as ever. That said, the film really struggled to connect with me or me with it. It's ridiculous in parts

like JG's manager and trainers all jumping ship onto the "baddie's" side; being given 6 weeks to fight etc.

and very cliched in others and ultimately suffers greatly as a result. Overall, a very disappointing 5/10.

True Detective Season 2 I know a lot of people didn't enjoy this but I did an 8 episode binge watch over the weekend and of course it's not better than Season 1 (how could it be?), but I found it very good and interesting nonetheless. I think comparisons to S1 are unfair and even with that I left S2 with newfound respect for Vince Vaughan and Colin Farrell. I'd wrote a longer review but I'm too tired....... I'd give it an 8/10.

Hi, do you know that part where you are saying

the managers and trainers all jumped ship and went on the baddies side

. i actually find that realistic because isnt it you always find out who your true friends are when you lose everything and they stick by you and in fairness

some of his crew did stay loyal to JG

.