What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

fin12

sorry I know this is a bit off topic, but I just read an article there that Home Alone was going to be showing in the cinemas again for its 25th anniversary but cant see it listed in any of the cinemas, just checked it on the omniplex website and it had a release date of the 12/12/15, anyone seen this listed in their cinema? Would love to go see this in the cinema.................

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

fin12 wrote: »

sorry I know this is a bit off topic, but I just read an article there that Home Alone was going to be showing in the cinemas again for its 25th anniversary but cant see it listed in any of the cinemas, just checked it on the omniplex website and it had a release date of the 12/12/15, anyone seen this listed in their cinema? Would love to go see this in the cinema.................

Loads of cinemas are showing it as part of their Christmas seasons. As they do every year.

fin12

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Loads of cinemas are showing it as part of their Christmas seasons. As they do every year.

None in Cork are showing it :(:

e_e

Liamalone wrote: »

Ack sure, the story is still the same lads!

But the storytelling (the crucial aspect of cinema) may be adversely affected. Watching an edited and cropped movie is like reading a book with missing passages and typos all over the place. It can potentially kill the experience.

Born on the Fourth of July

Hadn't seen this in over ten years. Really is an outstanding piece of filmmaking, and reminds me again of why Stone is my favourite director. Each scene constructed perfectly and seamlessly edited from one to the next. Something over 2 hours that doesn't let you pause for even a second while still maintaining a depth that is often lost with others who attempt such ambitious editing.
A real rollercoaster of emotions in this film which is easily Cruises best acting performance.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I just watched Splash! and it's a complete load of balls.

bnt

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I just watched Splash! and it's a complete load of balls.

It is a bit ... wet. :cool:

I finally got to see Jackass 3D. (Wasn't exactly a priority, clearly.) I saw it in 2D, but that was quite enough. Some of the guys have got grey hair already. The closing sequence strongly suggests that this was the last one.

Highlights:

Harry Palmr

Rambo - First Blood Part 2 (1985) Dir George Pan Comostos

First Blood (1983) was a cracking adventure which among the action said something quietly about the Vietnam veterans lot.

This sequel on the other hand does not. A sweaty homo-erotic work-out directed in his usual rudimentary style by Comostos (see Cassandra Crossing and Escape to Athena) this shoot 'em dead hardly gets going really until the betrayal scene which is at the halfway point, fortunately from that point on it does pick up as a mindless spectacle though it never really gathers the steam this sort of film needs. Hard to credit that it was so popular beyond its timing chiming in with Reagans America.

GAAman

Well I've seen The Force Awakens so I can frequent this forum again :pac:

Watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind last night. It's funny how films change based on you. I haven't watched this film in years, my closing thought on it this time round instead of it being a cool ending.....

Dreyfuss basically forgets he has a wife and kids, and jumps on a bleedin spaceship

pixelburp

Everest (2015)

Not one to watch if you're thinking of going mountaineering. Or even hillwalking! I'm somewhat disappointed I missed this in the cinema, as it really put the cinematic format to good use in its portrayal of the sheer terrifying size and naturally epic quality of the titular mountain. The story itself played with the tropes of the Disaster genre, without necessarily de-constructing them, or indeed indulging too much in the clichés either. The tension was nicely built up too, taking its time in establishing both the (presumably) real-life logistics and danger simply getting to the 'bottom' of Everest in the first place, as well as the characters making the journey. So once the excrement hit the fan, the impact hit all the harder considering the effort already spent getting to that point.


Star Wars: Original Trilogy ('Harmy Despecialised' versions)

I dug around the internet and discovered a group of fans managed to make their own versions of the original Star Wars trilogy. Like many fans, I'm disappointed that only HD versions available are the dreadful 'Special Editions', with the myriad of terrible CGI additions and tonally deaf tinkering to iconic scenes. The 'Harmy' versions went about removing these versions, restoring the pallete of the original prints, as well as upscaling old Laserdisc / DVD versions of the original, unblemished editions. Basically, it's as good as we're going to get until Disney / Fox release an official version.

As for the films themselves? Well: Empire Strikes Back was as good, if not better, than I remembered it. It's still a fantastic amalgamation of action and depth; Return of the Jedi deserves more credit than it gets and is a great film in its own right, despite the best efforts of the Ewoks; and A New Hope is far, far cheesier than I recall.

Have yet to see the new film, and while the general consensus, including opinions I value and respect (a few Boards.ie users would be part of that group hehe ), is that it's a great film, I'm slow to see the film. Star Wars under Disney already looks like a mighty mutant behemoth that'll swallow Geek Culture whole before completely weaponising it.

Tony EH

GAAman wrote: »

Well I've seen The Force Awakens so I can frequent this forum again :pac:

Watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind last night. It's funny how films change based on you. I haven't watched this film in years, my closing thought on it this time round instead of it being a cool ending.....

Dreyfuss basically forgets he has a wife and kids, and jumps on a bleedin spaceship

The wife and kids hate him and have buggered off.

Drey seems cool with that. :cool:

bnt

I seem to be on a trashy movie kick at the moment. After Jackass 3D the other day, I watched Bride Wars today. It got some horrendous reviews when it came out (24% on Metacritic, 10% on Rotten Tomatoes). I don't think it was quite that bad. One review called it unrealistic - well, duh, it's a satire of some women's obsession with the perfect wedding day. Everything, including emotions, gets turned up to 11 in such films.

I'm a bit confused about why there was a Bride War in the first place, though. Two friends getting married in adjacent halls at the same time: why was that a problem? You'd think that they'd actually like that idea.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

bnt wrote: »

I seem to be on a trashy movie kick at the moment. After Jackass 3D the other day, I watched Bride Wars today. It got some horrendous reviews when it came out (24% on Metacritic, 10% on Rotten Tomatoes). I don't think it was quite that bad. One review called it unrealistic - well, duh, it's a satire of some women's obsession with the perfect wedding day. Everything, including emotions, gets turned up to 11 in such films.

I'm a bit confused about why there was a Bride War in the first place, though. Two friends getting married in adjacent halls at the same time: why was that a problem? You'd think that they'd actually like that idea.

I don't think it's a satire....

Chain Smoker

45 Years
Aw man, I loved Weekend and Looking (which I think Andrew Haigh was quite heavily involved in?), so I had very high hopes for this but it's a whole other level. The way the script progresses to quietly tear everything apart is perfect for the two of them to just act the **** out of the film. It's the kind of film that I feel like has the potential to widen my empathic capabilities in ways that are only vaguely related to what was going on in the film (does that make sense?)

Carol
Was wayyyyyyyyy too tired heading in and slept right through it. Will need a rewatch, loved the film though, as in the look, the film film.

The Forbidden Room
Occasionally very funny, generally intriguing, but extremely scattered and the structure is damn near designed to test your patience (as well as leaving a mildly sour taste of Inception). I imagine it was a hell of a lot of fun to make to some degree, more than even most Guy Maddin it has a touch of a mad professor just trying out whatever he wants.
Having seen the reviews beforehand, I can't help but be hugely disappointed that it's nowhere near as fun or gripping as My Winnipeg was.

J.pilkington

This was on last night at 1am :rolleyes: - amazing documentary. Cant understand why RTE would buy the rights to an excellent documentary like this only to screen it at crazy hours where people are unlikely to watch it /even be aware about it.

Catch it quick on the player while its still up there.
http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/last-days-in-vietnam-30003746/10508461/

ButtersSuki

Drive (BBC Radio 1 Rescore) very interesting premise of taking Nicolas Winding Refn's cult classic Drive and whilst leaving the dialogue and background noises fully intact, completely changing the soundtrack with entirely new songs and tracks chosen by Zane Lowe (the project also received the director's approval fwiw). I love Drive, I was very late to the party on it and I also love the soundtrack (moody electronic and synth music is always magnetic to me) so this was always going to arouse at least some interest. Sometimes you can forget how much music can make or at least add to a movie or a scene but anyone who's ever seen the featurette on the extras of Trainspotting and how the examples they give for certain scenes and the impact different music had on them will know how the choice can completely change your impression of and reaction to a scene.

More info here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2M7xfhDYK4f9MDfBbR5zxHj/radio-1-rescores-drive

Note: the link to watch it has long expired and likely was limited to UK IP addresses anyway

Full tracklisting here for those who are interested in such things:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04ph659/segments
Worth tracking down (I recorded this from BBC3 over a year ago) but please do it justice and play it on a decent system!

It worked so well I honestly can't decide which I preferred, so it's still an 8/10.

ButtersSuki

J.pilkington wrote: »

This was on last night at 1am :rolleyes: - amazing documentary. Cant understand why RTE would buy the rights to an excellent documentary like this only to screen it at crazy hours where people are unlikely to watch it /even be aware about it.

/

Don't start me on their screening policies.
Damages? Tuesday night after midnight.
Parks & Recreation? Tuesday night after midnight.
Mad Men? various nights after midnight.

Just 3 examples of at the time award-winning shows that they bought and screened at ridiculous times..........to save prime viewing slots for the likes of Killinaskully, Mattie and whichever RTE "star" had a vanity project on the go ("Brian and Pippa Get Married" anyone?). Idiots.

The director of programming from RTE was on The Last Word a few years back. I text the show asking why Mad Men was screened post midnight. Matt Cooper asked him. His response? "Well most people would have seen it previously on Sky Atlantic so we thought that would be a good time to show it". Utterly bizarre logic. Why buy it then at all? He then went on to say certain shows are niche and wouldn't have mainstream appeal. Well mif you put them on after midnight they never will you moron. How can the uninitiated find new series if they're on at stupid o'clock? You're (deliberately I suspect) setting them up to fail so that at the end of the year you can say 8 of the top 10 shows on RTE were home made etc. Using RTE viewing figures as the foundation for the argument Killinaskully is a better comedy than Parks & Rec. ;);):D:D:D:eek::eek::eek::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I suspect they do it purely to keep TV3 from getting certain shows, and for the home produced argument too.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

^ That's how I judge if something is worth watching or not. On RTÉ at 8pm? Nope. On after midnight? Yes.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Megamind was on BBC this morning. They seem to show it every Christmas and I love it.

It came out around the same time as Despicable Me and has a similar basic plot (evil mastermind turns good) but is, in my opinion, a far superior film. It's brilliantly funny, sweet, exciting and looks really good especially in the action sequences. The voice cast includes Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Brad Pitt.

I've watched it 3 Christmases in a row now and it actually gets better every time. Great to watch if you've got little people to entertain but equally great to watch by yourself.

The Black Oil

What Happened, Miss Simone?

Very good documentary about Nina Simone. Quite a tragic figure - details of which I was previously unaware of. She was classically trained and became more politically active over time, which hurt her career. As for her mental health, put it this way, I was reminded of Carrie from Homeland. There was also some domestic violence from her husband and her daughter ended up leaving because of Simone's own behaviour.

Chain Smoker

Didn't really watch it but Under the Skin was on the television a few days ago and I was really impressed by how utterly timeless it already seems. Soundtrack is ridiculously good too.


The People vs George Lucas
Well, I'm glad I'm not an obsessive Star Wars fan, and George Lucas's tinkering has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers
Only saw A Close Shave about a year ago and was kind of disappointed. Hadn't seen this since I was a kid so I was a bit afraid it would be underwhelming but it absolutely held up. Immaculately executed and everything about it holds up. Might be the nostalgia, might be the smaller team/longer production time, but it seems to have a lot more charm to the characters.
Really looking forward to revisiting A Grand Day Out now.

Harry Palmr

There is abig difference in technical quality between A Grand Day Out and the subsequent adventures but they are ALL (ALL) very good!

Behind the Candelabra (2011) Dir Steven Soderbergh

The essentially true story of ivory tinkling legend Liberace and his relationship with "farmboy" Scott Thornson, a commendably vanity free performance by Michael Douglas but Matt Danon is the star turn going through the whole gamut of emotions as Thornson who's life is transformed in every regard. Oh yes Rob Lowe as the sleazy doctor is superbly "otherworldly"

Chain Smoker

Harry Palmr wrote: »

There is abig difference in technical quality between A Grand Day Out and the subsequent adventures but they are ALL (ALL) very good!

I remember that, expecting to find it a hell of a lot more charming now than I did when I was 8 though.

The Shaun the Sheep movie has 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, anyone see it? The tv series is fun enough, can see kids loving it, but I can't see it transferring to feature length very well.

Del.Monte

Chain Smoker wrote: »

Didn't really watch it but Under the Skin was on the television a few days ago and I was really impressed by how utterly timeless it already seems. Soundtrack is ridiculously good too.


The People vs George Lucas
Well, I'm glad I'm not an obsessive Star Wars fan, and George Lucas's tinkering has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers
Only saw A Close Shave about a year ago and was kind of disappointed. Hadn't seen this since I was a kid so I was a bit afraid it would be underwhelming but it absolutely held up. Immaculately executed and everything about it holds up. Might be the nostalgia, might be the smaller team/longer production time, but it seems to have a lot more charm to the characters.
Really looking forward to revisiting A Grand Day Out now.

The three original Wallace & Gromit films were all super but the fourth one, the feature length 'The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' is best avoided - too many old gags recycled for the US market. It's still streets ahead of a lot of similar movies but not up to the high standards of the three short films.

ButtersSuki

Was in the mood for some comedy so watched Zach and Miri Make a Porno for the first time. Dug it out of my vault as it's been something I've wanted to watch but not nearly enough to place it ahead of other items on my list. It's your typical Kevin Smith movie in many ways with a bit of Judd Apatow thrown in. I'm sure I'm probably the last regular user of this thread to have seen it so I'll spare the plot details. I'd give the first hour an 8/10 in gross-out/stupid comedy more, after that it goes rapidly downhill with the second half and ending (where it goes full on rom com) getting a 2/10, so overall a 5/6 out of 10.


The Brandon St. Randy character however was a fabulous cameo from Justin Long:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8fok7I4Xxk

There wasn't enough of this however:


My God Elizabeth Banks is so fricking hot....

Chain Smoker

Del.Monte wrote: »

The three original Wallace & Gromit films were all super but the fourth one, the feature length 'The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' is best avoided - too many old gags recycled for the US market. It's still streets ahead of a lot of similar movies but not up to the high standards of the three short films.

Ach, I think Curse of the Were Rabbit is grand considering its as long as the previous 3 combined. A Matter of Loaf and Death was a crushing disappointment altogether though.




Listen to Me Marlon
So Marlon Brando apparently recorded a whole load of self help tapes for himself a la Kenny Powers. This documentary uses them among other audio of him to try and give an idea of what Marlon Brando the incredibly guarded individual was like.
I don't think it's an especially amazing documentary, follows a very direct chronological narrative approach and feels like it's racing a bit at some key points (it could've focused on the 70s alone and been significantly less accessible to a general audience but a lot greater). Brando is a fascinating individual though and it's a bit of a treat that something like this was able to be made (unless you feel iffy about someone's very personal recordings being made public without their permission after their death).

Hoffa
Sat through it, was half-watching it just so I'd have a clearer idea of who Jimmy Hoffa was beyond trade union guy who disappeared and was a big deal for some reason, but I didn't take a bit in.
The structure was kind of weird, set on the day he disappeared with tons of flashbacks, really clearly building up to the film's idea of what happened him. It really just left me thinking that someone involved was very taken by JFK.

The Black Oil

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

The film's first striking image is September 11th and there a few subsequent reminders of that event. Shortly after, we blitz through Jack's personal and military history. Jumping forward over a decade, Ryan now has his doctorate and is 'just an analyst', albeit one working for the CIA. The early scenes with Kevin Costner mark him as there to explain stuff of the audience, though his role improves a bit with time. Towards the end, we have a ticking time scenario to cement Ryan's hero status.

As a standalone film it's solid. There are some low tech moments, the dinner scene is well done and there are a few decent lines. As part of the wider Ryan catalogue it's largely without the grunt work and tension of earlier entries. In a Hollywood where every second blockbuster seems to be about hacking some sort of list, and in a world of Bourne, Bond and Mission Impossible, it lacks a distinct voice.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Watched Pilgrim Hill this morning.

RTÉ showed at over Christmas there at some ungodly hour. I wouldn't expect it to be the family film on Christmas Day but it deserves a better slot than what it got. Anyway....

Really strong debut feature. Reminiscent of Lenny Abrahamson's Garage in some ways, rural isolation, loneliness etc. but like Garage it's a very realistic snapshot of Irish life. Far more realistic than a lot of Irish films.

One thing that slightly bothered me was the talking head interview aspect of it.

I kept thinking it would be revealed at the end he'd been arrested and was being interviewed or was maybe getting medical help of some sort, talking to a doctor or something. I thought at first he'd done the auld boy in and then I thought he had kicked off when they came for the cows and hurt someone but no. Just a random talking head.

The overall effect and point of the film isn't hurt by it but it just seemed a bit of a strange way to go about it. I've seen plenty of films that just use voice over for things like that.

That aside it's an excellent piece of film making and storytelling and the fact it was shot over 7 days on a loan from the Credit Union just goes to show what people with real talent can do if given the chance. Must get my hands on Glassland now.

e_e

Watched all of the Rocky movies in the past few weeks in the run-up to Creed. Enjoyed 4 out of 6 of them which is 2 or 3 more than I was expecting tbh. The first one is an absolutely terrific film still. Stallone can sure be great when he wants to be.

Rocky 9/10
Rocky II 5/10
Rocky III 7/10
Rocky IV 6/10
Rocky V 4/10
Rocky Balboa 6/10

Chain Smoker

e_e wrote: »

Watched all of the Rocky movies in the past few weeks in the run-up to Creed. Enjoyed 4 out of 6 of them which is 2 or 3 more than I was expecting tbh. The first one is an absolutely terrific film still. Stallone can sure be great when he wants to be.

Rocky 9/10
Rocky II 5/10
Rocky III 7/10
Rocky IV 6/10
Rocky V 4/10
Rocky Balboa 6/10

Forced someone who had never seen them to watch them all with me there a bit ago, cannot understate how much I dislike IV as part of the series. It's big dumb 80s fun but it's so horrifically off for the character. I wound up liking V purely because of how it was straining to rectify how thoroughly wrong the fourth one had gotten it all.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Watched Pilgrim Hill
...
One thing that slightly bothered me was the talking head interview aspect of it.

I kept thinking it would be revealed at the end he'd been arrested and was being interviewed or was maybe getting medical help of some sort, talking to a doctor or something. I thought at first he'd done the auld boy in and then I thought he had kicked off when they came for the cows and hurt someone but no. Just a random talking head.

The overall effect and point of the film isn't hurt by it but it just seemed a bit of a strange way to go about it. I've seen plenty of films that just use voice over for things like that.

For the most part I thought this wasn't great but got away with it by being extremely untapped ground and getting enough right.

The one scene where he

goes for a ****e night out and then gets stopped by the gardai

was inspired. Coming from a similar background I absolutely can see how a non-event like that would just make you feel a thousand times more repressed. There's a few moments like that that would leave me cautiously optimistic for the director's future.
It's a bit baffling that he wound up using a Talking Head, it seemed wholly unnecessary to me; I chalked it down to first-feature nerves, the idea that he may have

killed the dad

would've given the film an awfully off tone but I can see where you're coming from!