What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Harry Palmr

I loved the guided missile hand gun in that, plus the ending on the skyscraper project was well handled

The Package 1989 Mean Gene Hackman is an army Colonel caught up in a sinister plot when he's given a man to transport back to America who is not what he seems (Tommy Lee Jones). Its a Cold War thriller with some familiar faces and a Fugitive feel to it. While not as good a flick its entertaining all the same, and Mean Gene never disappoints.

Tony EH

Mizu_Ger wrote: »

Runaway (1984)
Michael Crichton film about the perils of Artificial Intelligence. Watching it now, 30 years after it was made, it's surprising how prescient the AI objects are. Drones, home automation, tablets etc. They all make an appearance.

The film itself is nothing special. The effects are not great and a bit laughable at times (the "spiders" here are not as menacing as those in Spielberg's Minority Report) which doesn't help. Storywise, Tom Selleck is a cop in a division that specifically deals with "runaway" robots and must track down a madman (Gene Simmons, who glares through the whole film) hacking robots to kill people.

You see...THIS is the kind of film they should be remaking. An update of 'Runaway' could be great.

_Kaiser_

Rocky III

I stuck it on earlier just to test something and now I've ended up watching the whole thing here The whole series is just fantastic. I've seen it all loads of times but you still can't help but getting sucked in and cheering. It has some real heart too (such as the scene on the beach where he finally admits he's afraid to face Clubber again and lose everything) - Adrian/Talia Shire puts in a great performance there IMO

Anyway, now for the big fight.. go Rock!!

Chain Smoker

THERE'S A 35MM SCREENING OF THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE NEAR ME IN A FORTNIGHT!

MadDog76

Chain Smoker wrote: »

THERE'S A 35MM SCREENING OF THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE NEAR ME IN A FORTNIGHT!

Jesus, I read 35MM as 3SUM at first glance .......... must be my dirty mind!!

Blood of Heroes 1989 What a crazy flick this is! Set in a post apocalyptic world, Rutger Hauer leads a team that play this ultra violent game of putting the skull of a dog on the top of a stick while the opposition try and take you out with various weapons. Seems that this is all people do in this particular world, and Rutger leads his team to play in a special league versus the elite dozens of miles underground. Surprisingly violent, and surprisingly entertaining for what it is. Joan Chen plays the 'quick' on the team, and Delroy Lindo is also in there!

The Bounty 1984 Good old Dino De Laurentis loved an epic movie. Hopkins, Gibson, Day Lewis, Neeson, Olivier...and even Neil Morrissey and Dexter Fletcher strut their stuff in this true story of a mutiny. Hopkins superbly plays the ship captain, trying to maintain discipline after they spend a few months docked in Tahiti in what might as well be choric song of the lotus eaters. Gibson falls in love with a local and it goes downhill from there. Very enjoyable flick

edbrez

Love thy neighbour - one of the lesser known Hammer films. Every PC person today would have a heart attack watching this.

e_e

Chain Smoker wrote: »

THERE'S A 35MM SCREENING OF THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE NEAR ME IN A FORTNIGHT!

Record the screen from your phone and send it to me. :P

D.S.

Watched the Infernal Affairs trilogy (which inspired The Departed) - the Hong Kong crime epic. Though I like The Departed - I prefer the pacing and character work of Infernal Affairs over the three movies - and reckon The Departed suffered from being too rushed.

8-10

D.S. wrote: »

Watched the Infernal Affairs trilogy (which inspired The Departed) - the Hong Kong crime epic. Though I like The Departed - I prefer the pacing and character work of Infernal Affairs over the three movies - and reckon The Departed suffered from being too rushed.

First one is one of my favourite movies. I've actually never been able to bring myself to watch The Departed as it just wouldn't be the same (I've given it 20mins)

I just re-watched Infernal Affairs and Infernal Affairs 2 a couple of weeks ago. Still have the trilogy on DVD, will get to the 3rd one soon. I don't watch this often enough, the first one is up there with Heat in terms of re-watchability!

ButtersSuki

D.S. wrote: »

Watched the Infernal Affairs trilogy (which inspired The Departed) - the Hong Kong crime epic. Though I like The Departed - I prefer the pacing and character work of Infernal Affairs over the three movies - and reckon The Departed suffered from being too rushed.

IA1 is brilliant (and far superior to The Departed). 2&3 were disappointing tbh IMO.

johnny_ultimate

Son of Saul - This is a debut feature. László Nemes' film is one of the most accomplished pieces of work of recent years, a complex marriage of form and function. Channeling the Dardennes and IMO a bit of Passion of Joan of Arc, centering the camera near exclusively on one person's face/head creates an intimate but artfully removed connection with the hell being portrayed (in this case, a concentration camp). The 4:3 frame not only suits the dimensions of Géza Röhri's face more effectively then widescreen would, but the absence of that 'extra space' is used as an ethically and artistically engaged method of both portraying and obscuring the horrors that surround Saul. It's no surprise it won Claude Lanzmann's support: like Shoah, it is a film that considers ways to depict the almost undepictable. It is at once frightening in its proximity to graphic imagery and, hauntingly, a few steps removed from it - Saul is numb, but not yet completely desensitised, and the sound and visuals capture that expertly.

Incredibly harrowing as it is, the only major point of contention I have with the film is that it almost feels too neatly designed to pull us through as many hellish sequences as possible. Saul's day-long journey, his miraclous surivial of one potentially deadly encounter after the next and the constant hints of an upcoming uprising, gives the film a thriller structure it doesn't necessarily need. Of course, it helps enhance the film's gruelling emotional and dramatic intensity, but the material is powerful enough to stand alone without the need for a more traditional thriller powering it along. That, though, is nowhere near enough to dull the power of a film that is as thoughtful as it is audacious: a challenging but startling new way of making cinema about the Holocaust. This is a debut feature.

briany

I'm Not Scared (2003)

Italian mystery thriller. A boy living in a rural part of southern Italy discovers a concealed hole near an abandoned house that has a boy around his age being kept there against his will.

A very well put-together coming of age story, this. Elements of horror, slice of life and thriller are all mixed in there and put over the rustic Italian backdrop and a nice symphonic score.

Chain Smoker

e_e wrote: »

Record the screen from your phone and send it to me. :P

I bought a second ticket, figured if it's extremely slow paced it might help to drag someone along. You're welcome to it!

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Incredibly harrowing as it is, the only major point of contention I have with the film is that it almost feels too neatly designed to pull us through as many hellish sequences as possible. Saul's day-long journey, his miraclous surivial of one potentially deadly encounter after the next and the constant hints of an upcoming uprising, gives the film a thriller structure it doesn't necessarily need. Of course, it helps enhance the film's gruelling emotional and dramatic intensity, but the material is powerful enough to stand alone without the need for a more traditional thriller powering it along. That, though, is nowhere near enough to dull the power of a film that is as thoughtful as it is audacious: a challenging but startling new way of making cinema about the Holocaust. This is a debut feature.

It's been a few months and I definitely wasn't in the mood, but that completely ruined the film for me, to be honest. Was expecting a film from someone who worked under Bela Tarr to completely forgo anything along those lines, rather than a run of lucky escapes for a character that I haven't seen the like of since Apocalypto. The pretty brave shooting technique served to make all those escapes feel even more ridiculous, like the opening passage in a video game.

Visually spectacular (is that a suitable word?) film, right down to the lens choices and sound mixing, but it done nothing for me emotionally at all. I was expecting A LOT though, something to hit hard like Shoah.

edbrez

Baron Blood - Euro horror from the 1970s about a corpse brought back to life in a castle. Dated and not great.

ButtersSuki

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Haven't been movie-ing for a while as I've been overdosing on boxsets and Netflix. Watched the first 2 seasons of Brotherhood about an Irish American family with ties to the mob and politics (average Irish American family then...). A few familiar faces (Brian F. O'Byrne included), it's grand (the acting is largely very good, the script feels a bit clumsy and rushed in places); a bit of a filler if you've nothing to watch or get too involved in. I'll do the final season this weekend (there's only 8 episodes in that season) and revert with a final score.

Did the final season this weekend rather than last but in a weird way it's probably the best season, despite its brevity. Overall I'd give it a 7.5/10. It had so much going for it that it's easy to see how showing it on the channel it was shown on (it was on showtime - one of the first on demand/paid channels) and despite the critical acclaim it was getting at the time that it just became another of those shows that got "lost" at the time. Shame really.

Back to movies now for a while methinks....too many choices though!

Duggy747

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956........or maybe 1955 as it says in it's title)

Enjoyable Hitchcock + James Stewart combo, not up there with their other collaborations but still an enjoyable film though that ending

is just so abrupt despite it's joke.

I know Hitchcock loved his rear projection but, boy howdy, he went a bit mad randomly intercutting it into scenes.

It has a few story problems and some unintentionally funny moments but the Albert Hall sequence is a great scene in the film and it's standout piece.

Haven't seen Hitchcock's original 1934 version so will give that a watch next.

ThisRegard

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Did the final season this weekend rather than last but in a weird way it's probably the best season, despite its brevity. Overall I'd give it a 7.5/10. It had so much going for it that it's easy to see how showing it on the channel it was shown on (it was on showtime - one of the first on demand/paid channels) and despite the critical acclaim it was getting at the time that it just became another of those shows that got "lost" at the time. Shame really.

Back to movies now for a while methinks....too many choices though!

I watched is back when it was originally shown on Fox (I think it was) over here. I thought it was great and was disappointed when it was cancelled.

charlie_says

Watched a few corkers recently:

Coherence (2013)

A very tight and enjoyable blend of psychological thriller and mild sci fi. A bunch of not entirely likeable middle aged Californian friends are having a dinner party when a series of strange events and unexplainable happenings related to a a field effect of a comet passing near the earth that night messes up the relaxed, if slightly urbane atmosphere. The group scenes are very well done and I switched between liking and disliking some of the protagonists several times.

Very tense single room environment and had me second guessing through most of the film with the parallel universe and paradox headscratching.

Nice little recommendations from this board

Possession (1981)

Was pretty much blown away by this. A jarring and unsettling merry-go-round ride into madness and possession. Sam Neil returns to his wife to try to work out a unexplained marital freezeout instigated by her played by stunningly and hauntingly beautiful Isabelle Adjani, who gives I think the single best female performance I have ever seen as a unhinged housewife consumed by mental instability and basically possession. Sam Neil also gives a fantastic performance as a the mysterious and conflicted husband who is trying to deal with a truly messed up situation and salvage his marriage and child, whilst simultaneously being involved in mysterious shady spy like business in Cold War West Berlin - which is a very suitable settings for the film as the wall represents fear, madness and a threat of unknown nuclear chaos so close to the main players throughout the film.

Great cinematography due the camera moving around both in a swingy and subtly disorientating revolving fashion as the craziness moves up through the gears. Hints of demonic influence and maybe even aliens are never explained and just left me enthralled by the unrelenting intensity of the performances and desperate situation unfolds in a bizarre and horrible fashion.

The underground scene is phenomenal.

Highly, highly recommend this.

Son of Saul (2015)

Powerful, powerful stuff.

A brutal look into the hellish existence of a Jewish workers in a Nazi concentration camp herding their people into the gas chambers, and dealing with the bodies afterwards knowing full well that they are going to join them soon. I read up about these Sonderkommando of camp worker groups and its truly shocking stuff. It was a living hell factory for them.

Whilst this is undoubtedly a brilliant piece, my only mild niggle was that I did find the over the shoulder camera work getting a bit long in the tooth by the end of the movie. The soundscape was fantastic throughout the film.

Excellent stuff. Look forward to more from director László Nemes, with this unreal début film this guy is probably going to make so special work going forward.

Lavinia

Started a thread on similar/same topic as the "Electric Boogaloo" in the title of this one made me think it's something else so didn't even open it :rolleyes: - anyway will place my post here and hello :

Last movie I saw was yesterday on Netflix called "Love me Like You Do".
TBH not my cup of tea, but I watched it till the end. Story on a loner guy who plays fantastic music, meeting a girl when he came back to his old town.. I'd give it 6 out of 10, recommended for a "fell good" easy-going nights... Liked the music in it...

Currently starting a Swedish Wallander so will see how it goes... Will see if I'd want to see a BBC Kenneth Branagh adaptation afterwards or not..

Tony EH

charlie_says wrote: »

Possession (1981)

Hilarious to think that this was on the "video nasties" list, along with 'Cannibal Ferox' and 'The Beast in Heat' in the mid 80's.

:pac:

Decuc500

I watched Jupiter Ascending on 3D blu-ray recently. Watching a 3D movie at home will always be a guilty pleasure of mine.

The film was nuts. It was completely ridiculous but also very good fun. The plot was a bit all over the place but it was so visually impressive I just went with it.

Reminded me a bit of the second Riddick movie or even Dune.

Lavinia

So is this thread about movies only? I'm sorry I cannot go through so many pages to find out

Mike Litoris

Lavinia wrote: »

So is this thread about movies only? I'm sorry I cannot go through so many pages to find out

Yes, its a films sub forum of entertainment.

There is a TV forum here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=227

Lavinia

OK, thanks

ButtersSuki

The Duke of Burgundy with Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) and Chiara D'Anna, recorded from Film 4 last week.

Where do I start? It's very European, in that arthouse and stylistic way. It nods it's head to so many films and genres it's hard to know where to start......the credits and the soft focus camera are very 70s Europorn (think Emmanuelle etc. - not that I ever saw any of those of course....:rolleyes:), the scenery is very rustic French countryside a la parts of Betty Blue (though we're given no clue as to where the location is, it could easily be Spain or Italy too), the relationship between the two leads reminded me very much of Secretary, the use of mannequins are I assume a nod to some other film.

The story explores a lesbian relationship between two lepidopterists (that's a person who studies butterflies to you and me) set in a village inhabited it seems only by female lepidopterists.

One minor irritation was Knudsen's spoken English, which has always struck me as being a little weird, it being very different from how she sounds when speaking her native tongue - this was as true in Borgen as it is here.

It's pretentious and most certainly not mainstream; that's probably why I liked it 8/10.

edbrez

Black Sabbath - Italo horror, the one Scream ripped-off with the phone scene.

The Black Oil

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Son of Saul - This is a debut feature. László Nemes' film is one of the most accomplished pieces of work of recent years, a complex marriage of form and function. Channeling the Dardennes and IMO a bit of Passion of Joan of Arc, centering the camera near exclusively on one person's face/head creates an intimate but artfully removed connection with the hell being portrayed (in this case, a concentration camp). The 4:3 frame not only suits the dimensions of Géza Röhri's face more effectively then widescreen would, but the absence of that 'extra space' is used as an ethically and artistically engaged method of both portraying and obscuring the horrors that surround Saul. It's no surprise it won Claude Lanzmann's support: like Shoah, it is a film that considers ways to depict the almost undepictable. It is at once frightening in its proximity to graphic imagery and, hauntingly, a few steps removed from it - Saul is numb, but not yet completely desensitised, and the sound and visuals capture that expertly.

Incredibly harrowing as it is, the only major point of contention I have with the film is that it almost feels too neatly designed to pull us through as many hellish sequences as possible. Saul's day-long journey, his miraclous surivial of one potentially deadly encounter after the next and the constant hints of an upcoming uprising, gives the film a thriller structure it doesn't necessarily need. Of course, it helps enhance the film's gruelling emotional and dramatic intensity, but the material is powerful enough to stand alone without the need for a more traditional thriller powering it along. That, though, is nowhere near enough to dull the power of a film that is as thoughtful as it is audacious: a challenging but startling new way of making cinema about the Holocaust. This is a debut feature.

I wasn't particularly affected by this emotionally. What struck me as horrifying was the systematic way in which it was all done. The stripping down, the shower, the dragging of the "pieces", the emphasis on work, work, work, the disposal of the ashes. Individuals regarded as numbers, not people. This was very much seen through one pair of eyes and rarely did the camera drop below shoulder level. The fear and uncertainty of the whole situation. You could almost smell the flesh through the cinema screen even though we didn't see bodies being loaded directly into the ovens, but we came very, very close. The film throws the audience right into the heart of one of most unsettling chapters in humanity's history. I was impressed the Jews even had a little underground rail road going on, in so far as one could have in such a situation.

Pin drop cinema. Film of the year, so far, and for a debut feature, that's something.

ButtersSuki

Chancers: The Great Gangster Film Fraud BBC Storyville retelling of an Irish lassie (it's ok, she was from the North ) and a middle Eastern businessman's (nothing could go wrong with that title, eh?) attempts to swindle the UK Govt. out of money under a Film Tax Rebate Scheme. As the lie becomes bigger they decide to make the actual film for which they've falsely submitted tax papers. The film's stated budget was north of £19m STG, the movie they make cost less than £60k. The film they made (A Landscape of Lies) can only be described as the cast of Fair City trying to remake Heat, using a crew from TV3, shot in a week on an iPhone 3. The film footage combined with the video diaries the cast and crew kept combine to make it one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" farces. It's interesting if you are interested in non-mainstream British cinema, fraud, chutzpah and general stupidity/bravado. 6/10.