What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Mickeroo

I thought the hiding who he was stuff was very badly done, it was a good idea, but I never felt he was that conflicted about it as every chance he got he was out saving people (apart from his dad) and exposing his power to the world. What was supposed to be his over all defining character arch amounted to little more than a change of clothes as far as I could see.

Tony EH

Chain Smoker wrote: »

Christ almighty, are you saying Lorenzo's Oil is a better film than the two Babes?! :mad:

He only directed the second one.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Mickeroo wrote: »

I thought the hiding who he was stuff was very badly done, it was a good idea, but I never felt he was that conflicted about it as every chance he got he was out saving people (apart from his dad) and exposing his power to the world. What was supposed to be his over all defining character arch amounted to little more than a change of clothes as far as I could see.

Perhaps it would have been better if Pa Kent had died as a result of Clark not taking care to protect his secret. At least then there would have been some genuine internal conflict and guilt to wrassle with.

Tony EH

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Maybe they deserved to die. Natural selection and all that.

:pac:

Jesus Tickles, maybe you should direct the sequel!!!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Tony EH wrote: »

:pac:

Jesus Tickles, maybe you should direct the sequel!!!

Maybe I will!

In it Superman gives a lecture series about how when a really angry alien overlord lands his giant space machine in your city the very least you do is stay home from work. You definitely do not carry on about your day by going to work especially when you work in a some very tall buildings with zero chance of escape if said angry alien overlord decides to kick off.

Tony EH

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Maybe I will!

In it Superman gives a lecture series about how when a really angry alien overlord lands his giant space machine in your city the very least you do is stay home from work. You definitely do not carry on about your day by going to work especially when you work in a some very tall buildings with zero chance of escape if said angry alien overlord decides to kick off.

Yeh, sounds good.

TAKE THAT JOSS WHEDON!!!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Tony EH wrote: »

Yeh, sounds good.

TAKE THAT JOSS WHEDON!!!

There'll also be an "after credits" bit where Supes looks directly down the camera and says of course it's quite possible that this is exactly what the majority of citizens did when Zod landed and the buildings that were destroyed during the fighting were in fact empty meaning the death toll was actually pretty low. And then he just stared down the camera right at the audience for a minute with a look of utter disgust on his face. *fade to black"

Tony EH

Superman will return in 'Man of Steel II: Fcuk Everybody'

Chain Smoker

Tony EH wrote: »

He only directed the second one.

He was without a doubt the main creative force behind the first one though, was working on it for years and years. It was even a last minute choice by him to not direct the first one, deciding that his style might be a touch inappropriate for the film. He basically promoted one of his assistants and has been fairly vocal about dismissing the director's importance to the project since (I'd disagree with that personally, mind) .

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Tony EH wrote: »

Superman will return in 'Man of Steel II: Fcuk Everybody'

Act 1: Superman refuses to appear on stage with Taylor Swift. He's quoted in the papers as saying "F**K Taylor Swift, I'm going to a Kelly Clarkson concert instead." Shortly after Swift's record sales plummet and she has to sell off her cats to pay tax and insurance on the van she's living in.
Act 2: One Direct... oh, they've already gone. Musical interlude.
Act 3: Extended musical interlude. Lots of people die in the closing number as the stage collapses from Superman's overly vigorous Irish dancing. As the dust clears Supes brushes his cape off and says "Meh, f**k 'em"

Liam McPoyle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kXpUaQpXMA

Goodnight Mommy

This is obviously going to compared with The Babadook given that it features freaked out kids and a somewhat unhinged mother but to be fair to it, thats where the similarities end.

It centres around twin boys whose mother comes home from hospital with her head and face heavily bandaged and they begin to suspect that all is not right with mommy.

This isnt scary per se but there is a nice tense feeling throughout. The lead performances from Elias & Lukas Schwarz are excellent and it builds to a nicely shot conclusion.

Not a classic but pretty enjoyable.

6.5/10

Videodrome

Horror icon David Cronenbergs subversive, early 80s horror gets the gold star blu ray treatment from the guys at Arrow Video. The set itself is stunning. Its a 4 disc (2 blu and 2 dvd) set that comes with a 100 page hardback book with writings about the movie, Cronenberg and some sumptuous illustrations. Its completely sold out already but if you can track it down it is well worth getting for the collectors in here.

The story follows a suitably sleazy James Woods as Max Renn, proprietor of a late night cable channel that markets itself by screening sex and violence. While trawling through pirate satellite signals looking for something darker he stumbles upon a grainy film of extreme bondage / S & M entitled Videodrome. He hooks up with Debbie Harry who herself is into the darker side of sexuality and as things progress the lines between fantasy and reality become increasingly blurred to the point he becomes unsure what is real and what isnt.

Ive always been a fan of this film since first seeing it many years ago on BBC2. Its trademark Cronenberg, exploring sexual attitudes that exist outside the realms of whats normally acceptable, the metamorphosis of the human form which he would later bring to the screen in stunning fashion in his nightmarish vision of The Fly.

The effects work comes courtesy of the iconic Rick Baker and while a little bit dated in places, it still holds up fantastically well, even after 32 years.

The story itself is fantastic and Ive no doubt it was a big influence on blockbusters like The Matrix.

The transfer and sound are fantastic, the set itself is beautiful and the movie is brilliant.

A veritable trifecta for the horror movie nerd.

9/10

Harry Palmr

/\ Ah bring back the Forbidden season! /\

Scanners is on Horror or Film4 I forget which next week.

Anyway

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) Dir Sidney Lumet

The great directors final film contains a number of his favourite themes - New York, family, people making terrible decisions under pressure and money. Rather sad to see Philip Seymour Hoffman acting out some of his own private demons, he is good but not as impressive as Ethan Hawke as his dismal younger brother. All sweaty twitchy confidence drained desperation.

Dair76

^Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, I believe.

Harry Palmr

Only just watched the flippin' thing as well!

johnny_ultimate

The Circle - Films like Crash and Babel have given films about a series of interconnected narratives addressing BIG THEMES a bad name. Jafar Panahi's The Circle is a devastating example of how that sort of structure can work.

Over the course of the film, the camera and narrative follow a number of different women in Tehran over the course of a day. Jonathan Rosembaum called it a 'narrative relay', which is a perfect description - the film switches perspectives casually, organically flowing from one section to the next, often within a single shot. Thematically, all these separate stories are about how the women find themselves oppressed in some way or form: one whose newly born grandchild is a girl, not a boy as the father's family hoped; three still-teenagers just released from prison; a woman looking for an abortion; a mother who has chosen to abandon her young child; and a prostitute arrested when the man she is with is pulled over by police.

Panahi, as is his way, tells these stories without much comment - they're filmed in intimate medium shots and close-ups and long, handheld takes. But they're hugely evocative and provocative in equal measure. It's a 'political' film that does not lecture, but instead operates in humanistic terms. It's tragic and infuriating yet also full of warm observations and nuanced characterisation. And cinematically it's brilliant - the final shot, in which the camera and story come, for lack of a better description, 'full circle', is as perfect a closing shot as one is likely to encounter.

The Great Wall - This is the sort of Irish film we need to see more of. Tadgh O'Sullivan's documentary is formally radical in all the right ways. It occupies an unusual space between film essay and more straightforward 'documenting' - the long, unusual shots of scenes from Melillia, London and Athens are commented on only by a narrator reading out the Kafka story The Building of the Great Wall Of China. It's a poetic approach, proposing questions more than offering answers. It feels peculiarly timely - images of protests in Greece and scenes of migrant life in shanty towns have become even more potent since shooting. But it explores some more general aspects of contemporary life too, contrasted with its literary and historical voiceover - from the impact of surveillance to class division (one incredible shot shifts focus between a sealed off shanty town and a golf course in the background). Through associative editing, eccentric camerawork (skyscrapers seem surreal and foreboding here), and a brooding, unsettling soundtrack, it engrosses us in the imagery, and asks us to ponder the links between what can often seem like sometimes disparate scenes and places. The Great Wall is as striking as it is challenging. More please!

Masculin, Feminin - Everything you wanted to know about Jean-Luc Godard but were afraid to ask! This is one of the cheeky auteur's most accessible works, but without abandoning his voice in the process. You still have a general disregard for plotting, scenes of random, casual violence at odds with everything else happening in the film, random interruptions through bizarre intertitles etc... Yet, somewhat unusually in an often prickly filmography, there's some sort of... warmth and affection here. The characters are directionless, arrogant, shallow and delusional throughout, but Godard sympathetically probes the emotional and philosophical complications of "The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola" too. There's plenty of cinematic ingenuity - a mid film 'interview' is a highlight - and the prolonged close-up was made for Chantal Goya. Speaking of close-ups...

The Passion of Joan of Arc - what more can be said? Second viewing astonishes anew - right from the jaw-dropping opening dolly shot through its breathless conclusion (and all those mesmerising Falconetti close-ups in between), Dreyer's masterpiece is one of those canonical films without equal, whose greatness is near impossible to contest. A treat to see on the big screen, where it is free to overwhelm.

Looper007

[QUOTE=Harry Palmr;96781146
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) Dir Sidney Lumet

The great directors final film contains a number of his favourite themes - New York, family, people making terrible decisions under pressure and money. Rather sad to see Philip Seymour Hoffman acting out some of his own private demons, he is good but not as impressive as Ethan Hawke as his dismal younger brother. All sweaty twitchy confidence drained desperation.[/QUOTE]

Also a naked Marisa Tomei doesn't go down bad either :pac:. Hoffman was brilliant in this as was Hawke, But Albert Finney was amazing too. A right nasty downbeat film.

Anyway....

Lethal Weapon (1987)
Classic 80's action film, plus the pinnacle of the buddy cop genre. Mel Gibson gives his best performance as suicidal bad ass cop Riggs (I doubt Hollywood would let you get away with showing the hero wanting to kill himself anymore in a commercial action film). The chemistry between Danny Glover and Gibson is one of the reasons it's still held up by many. Also Gary Busy as Mr Joshua is the series best villain. The series after this got weaker, although I have a soft spot for part 2 as it is a far darker and downbeat film. But after that Part 3 and 4 turned it into Carry Up with Lethal weapon. Stick with the first two 9/10

Harry Palmr

Things to Come 1936 Dir William Cameron Menzies

The great production designers first big film as a director (he only a few others notably The Maze and Invaders From Mars) is a visual tour de force depicting 100 years starting with a catastrophic blitz as an epic war takes hold first between two countries and then two ideologies leading to a technocratic utopian 21st century. The acting and dialogue is notably stagey for the most part (only Ralph Richardson rising above it) but this is all about sound and vision really from the classic opening fanfare by Arthur Bliss to a brilliant sequence in which a new underground city takes shape. The sets and miniatures are still first class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx_PEWu0EoA

e_e

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The Great Wall - This is the sort of Irish film we need to see more of. Tadgh O'Sullivan's documentary is formally radical in all the right ways. It occupies an unusual space between film essay and more straightforward 'documenting' - the long, unusual shots of scenes from Melillia, London and Athens are commented on only by a narrator reading out the Kafka story The Building of the Great Wall Of China. It's a poetic approach, proposing questions more than offering answers. It feels peculiarly timely - images of protests in Greece and scenes of migrant life in shanty towns have become even more potent since shooting. But it explores some more general aspects of contemporary life too, contrasted with its literary and historical voiceover - from the impact of surveillance to class division (one incredible shot shifts focus between a sealed off shanty town and a golf course in the background). Through associative editing, eccentric camerawork (skyscrapers seem surreal and foreboding here), and a brooding, unsettling soundtrack, it engrosses us in the imagery, and asks us to ponder the links between what can often seem like sometimes disparate scenes and places. The Great Wall is as striking as it is challenging. More please!

One week after release and it's no longer playing. Really annoying how these Irish films aren't even given a shot. :mad:

Saw Living in a Coded Land (Which Tadhg edited) on RTE a few weeks back and it was very good.

Turtyturd

Inside Out: Standard Pixar fare which sticks rigidly to their template but fails to come anywhere close to their high points (Toy Story, Nemo,Incredibles). Also really tests how selfish/unlikable they can make their lead character and have the audience care.

cowboyBuilder

The man from U.N.C.L.E.

I was expecting it to be decent but it was awesome !

The cast were great, they had such a spark, amazing how important a good cast is !

Guy Ritchies best since Snatch I think.

Ageyev

I watched the Burton and Schumacher Batman films whilst listening to the Kevin Smith commentary from his Fatman on Batman podcast. You have to at least be able to tolerate Smith to get through even one of these. I don't mind the guy every once in a while and I found the tracks interesting for little tidbits relating to the comics and there were some laughs at Tim Burton's expense.

Movie commentary podcast seems like a good since the heyday of DVD extra commentary tracks seems to have petered out.

Harry Palmr

The Eyes of Laura Mars 1978 Fir Irvin Kershner

Faye Dunaway is a New York fashion photographer who starts to see the acts of a killer through their POV. Co scripted by John Carpenter from his own story Mars would have benefited greatly had he also directed I think (he was very busy that year it must be said). The material is thoroughly derivative, it could have been a Giallo pot-boiler at any time since the mid 60s and an old school sort like Kershner never really embraces the potential for trashy melodrama resulting in something rather undercooked.

ButtersSuki

The Informant starring Matt Damon and Scott Bakula. Another lost and unwatched DVD from the ButtersSuki DVD collection I hadn't heard much about this save for the description on the cover. It's a mildly comedic retelling of a true story of a whistle blower who

exposes and intercontinental price fixing ring on corn extracts (yes)

but ultimately becomes

the target of an investigation into his own affairs given his own dubious behaviour

. It's directed by Steven Soderberg and has Ocean's trademarks all over it from the fonts used to the accompanying soundtrack as well as being visually very similar to it in places. The result is a different but interesting way to tell the story and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I'd give it a 7/10.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SooBX1-kIQ

Wottle

Rudderless
Really nice film

johnny_ultimate

Tokyo-Ga: Wim Wenders directs a film essay on Tokyo and Yasujiro Ozu with guest appearances from Werner Herzog, Chisyu Ryu and Chris Marker (who actually briefly shows his face)?! Inject it into my goddamn veins.

The extended section in a factory that produces waxwork models of for restaurants is one of the most surreal, curious chapters of a film I've seen in quite some time. The interviews with Ryu and Ozu's long-time cameraman offer wonderful insights into the very possibly the greatest director to have ever lived, and Wender's own observations, composition choices and subject matter provoke plenty of interesting thoughts about what made Ozu's work so utterly remarkable. It's on Mubi for another week or two, a real treat for fans of anybody involved, many times so for fans of everybody involved.

45 Years - Andrew Haigh's follow up to the excellent Weekend can, on the surface, seem like a familiar tale of marital collapse ala Scenes from a Marriage, or another mid-tier, understated British prestige drama. It relies heavily on the considerad talents of Tom Courtenay and even more so Charlotte Rampling, to carry the tale of a long marriage buckling under an unwelcome reminder of the past. Yet as it goes on the understatement takes on great weight and substance to add emotional and formal complexity to what could have been a simple tale. There are no shouting matches, few excessive outbursts of emotion or exposition. Instead, long takes and the actors' expressions and nuanced interactions tell all - ultimately, this is a film where the devastating moments come not with excessive fanfare, but in little gestures, flinches and silences.

Nerdlingr

Watched DREDD the other night.

I had read somewhere that it was under-rated and had flown under the radar a bit, so decided to give it a go. After all it's only an hour and a half long.
Jaysus. Thought it was awful sh*te altogether. Give me Stallone's version any day!!!

Tony EH

GTFO...

:mad:

johnny_ultimate

Usually when a film receives a lot critical and viewer adoration, I can usually see where the praise is coming from, even if I don't actually agree with it. But Dredd... Coming at it after hearing months of praise, and often from people whose tastes I'd usually broadly align with, it just totally washed over me, leaving very little impression at all. The direction was bland, as were the set design and characters (although that seemed to be the point in the case of the protagonist at least). The script amounted to little more than an excuse to usher everybody along from setpiece to setpiece, and the film's fascination with hyper violence was peculiarly atonal and mildly repellant as a result. While certain comparisons are rather unfair given their parallel productions, its arrival in such close proximity to the visceral thrill of the unquestionably similar The Raid further dulled its already dulling impact.

That a sequel is so highly sought after still indicates that the film did indeed strike a chord with many, and happy to see fans of the comics got the film they wanted. But definitely a film where I well and truly simply could not see what (almost) everybody else did.

LCD

I actually watched Dredd for the first time recently. Hadn't seen the original movie & never read the comic. I knew a little about the character but nothing about the movie.

Really enjoyed it for what it was, a short "leave your brain at the door" movie. Great entertainment and some excellent scenes. Thought Dredd himself was brilliant, fearless & uncompromising.

Wottle

Wottle wrote: »

Rudderless
Really nice film

Checked this out last night. I found it nice for a while, a very interesting and clever concept for a movie. But then I found it forced the longer it went on and full of cliches. The music was very derivative - nice lyrics but very derivative and bland, I ended up turning it off about two thirds of the way through after one cliche too many!