What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Chain Smoker

One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern
Christ this was difficult to get my hands on for a film that seemed to get at least some kind of exposure and the ONLY documentary about a really important piece of democrat party history.
Wasn't very good unfortunately, absolute ton of cuts to scenes of Bush Jr to make a heavy handed "IRAQ IS LIKE VIETNAM" type message, not very interestingly structured, just quite boring overall. Felt like the makers were a touch too close to the subject and not wholly confident in his ability to speak up for himself. The guy himself came across plenty competent to speak up for himself. I think an Errol Morris style documentary would've benefited him more and been a lot more interesting.

j.s. pill II

Here are my thoughts on two films I watched recently: a) Star Wars Episode VII & b) Zoolander II - they are two films that I probably would have not gone out of my way to watch except that for a) I was bol*x hungover and for b) I was on a 9 hour flight (and also bol*x hungover, incidentally). Anyway...


Star Wars Episode VII - I have vague memories of enjoying Episode III when it came out in the cinema all those years ago. I also remember quickly revising my opinion of the film when I watched it on the small screen. With this in mind, I set my expectations down a notch and reminded myself that it would probably be better on the big screen etc. etc etc.
As anyone can discern from my previous posts, I'm a huge sci-fan so I don't want to sh*t all over this one because sci-fi is for loosers or anything. I'm simply not a big fan of the franchise BUT, I've always admired the aesthetic and I think the film did an excellent job f preserving it.
Now, the reason I do want to sh*t on it a little:

Did the main pillars of the plot have to be EXACTLY the same as Episode IV!? i.e. message hidden in droid, an initiate discovering their previously unknown Jedi powers, a death star (albeit a bigger one), an epic final battle to destroy said death star by targeting a fatal design flaw.

. I'm sure all these issues have been debated endlessly in the nerd-o-sphere so I will leave it at that.

Zoolander II - I really loved the original but I braced myself for this one and set my expectations to rock bottom. Sadly, the film did very little to raise my sentiments back up. Any film that has to rely on such an obscene amount of cameos must have had some serious script problems that the production team were very well aware of. I would have barely cracked a grin throughout were it not for the scenes with 'All', the model of thoroughly ambiguous gender. What a shame it would have been if all them PC folk got their way and those scenes were left on the cutting room floor.

tunguska

When Marnie was there

Bloody hell this is a beautiful film. Hit me right in the feels. Haven't blubbered so much at a cartoon since Inside out.

Heckler

BLACKWAY

Anthony Hopkins, Ray Liotta, Julia Stiles.

Sounds good on paper and a good cast. Based on a book about a harassed woman who gains help from an ex-logger.

A mess of a film.

No reason at all given for why Liottas character is giving her grief. No reason why Hopkins character would help out.

Sir Anthony lecter hopkins reduced to this muck. Astonishing.

MilesMorales1

Me Before You- oh my gosh, I loved it. I love me some cheesy romantic fare, and me before you delivered in spades. I must admit, I didn't know there was a controversy about the films ending before I saw it, but I didn't see what the big deal was. I mean apart from anything else, to steal a line from Jamie King's review, its essentially a fairy tale set in this illidlic english village, so just go with it, and I happily did. You'll be able to tell every story beat from the poster, and Emilia Clarke's character is essentially overdosed on happiness pills, but I loved it. I wanna see it again.


The Daughter - this movie was really, really great. Better than I'd thought from the poster in fact. The whole film has this air of something awful having happened, and is about to happen, and very few of the characters seem to be aware and are content to live in blissful ignorance till the hammer falls, set against the backdrop of a dying industrial community in Rural Australia. Terrific performances across the board, specially Odessa Young as teenager Hedvig who has some gut wrenchingly emotional scenes and carries it off perfectly. Great it is.

GreNoLi

Gattaca: Still holds up after 20 years, cinematography, soundtrack, performances all top notch, 85/100.

Harry Palmr

Time Bandits 1981 Dir Terry Gilliam

About the 4th time watching this, something new every time. John Cleese channeling minor royalty as Robin Hood is hilarious, Michael Palin and Shelley Duvall as star-crossed lovers under a dark ages tree and on the Titanic, Sean Connery as a Greek God is brilliant - he should have been a Greek god more often, after all the accent was never an issue for him. The sequence where the boy is spirited away from from under his gaze during the comic routine is superbly handled. Ralph Richardson as the apparently distracted yet alert Almighty and David Warner as ambitious evil wanting to know more about VCR recorders. Plus of course David Rappaport and Co as the topiary thieves with time in their hands.

pixelburp

Black Mass (2015)

Very much the standard US Crime Epic, tropes n' all, with the occasional creative flourish behind the lens giving some distinction. But the main, defining element can only be Johnny Depp, with the actor yet again dominating the screen for all the wrong reasons, demonstrating his insistence on slathering himself with make-up or donning a silly wig. In this case, the aesthetically bizarre decision was to encase himself in exaggerated prosthetics, resulting in an appearance that resembled a Boston-accented Nosferatu.

This doesn't suggest an accident by the make-up department either, as various shots seemed to intentionally frame Depp in deep shadow, his contact lenses, coupled with those prosthetics giving off an atmosphere akin to a horror movie; the monster lying in the dark ready to pounce. Frankly, I don't think it worked at all and Depps performance and face was constantly distracting among all the other actors simply trying to act a little more naturally; his monstrous appearance just created a jarring tone throughout the production.

fin12

pixelburp wrote: »

Black Mass (2015)

Very much the standard US Crime Epic, tropes n' all, with the occasional creative flourish behind the lens giving some distinction. But the main, defining element can only be Johnny Depp, with the actor yet again dominating the screen for all the wrong reasons, demonstrating his insistence on slathering himself with make-up or donning a silly wig. In this case, the aesthetically bizarre decision was to encase himself in exaggerated prosthetics, resulting in an appearance that resembled a Boston-accented Nosferatu.

This doesn't suggest an accident by the make-up department either, as various shots seemed to intentionally frame Depp in deep shadow, his contact lenses, coupled with those prosthetics giving off an atmosphere akin to a horror movie; the monster lying in the dark ready to pounce. Frankly, I don't think it worked at all and Depps performance and face was constantly distracting among all the other actors simply trying to act a little more naturally; his monstrous appearance just created a jarring tone throughout the production.

I totally agree, his appearance was so distracting, even when he's not in a scene it's like your still thinking about his appearance.

ButtersSuki

Haven't been around for a while as I've been binge-watching TV shows:

Billions:
Posted this a while back in the TV section:
I'm between two minds on it. Is it good? Yes. Is it great? No. It has some high points, but a lot of flaws and weaker moments.

The acting by the two leads is mostly very good, but it's let down by some terribly cliched lines and some of the supporting cast. Costible (who I liked in Damages*, The Wire and Breaking Bad amongst others) is far too OTT in this. It's like he took Leo's Wolf of Wall Street character and threw in some shouty Pacino to create the Wags character. It comes across as a little silly to me tbh.

The writing and the timelines are also frustrating. Some of the sub plots Spoiler: (cases etc., like the insider trading case Giamatti's dad potentially got involved in, and the tip Dollar Bill gave to the defectors) were hastily concluded in a completely unrealistic time frame. That's the real problem I feel with the show - if they were really to tackle the murky world the protagonists inhabit it wouldn't treat things so glibly. Personally, I'd rather see a storyline develop over a number of episodes/seasons and delve really deeply into it than just wrap up certain elements so quickly; but I guess it wouldn't be a show for the masses then?

I also found the incessant product product placement to be a tad annoying.

Maybe it's just me or maybe it's deliberate, but I thought Lewis looked like he was off his t*ts on Coke most of the time. And a guy who's that insanely rich would I suspect have better teeth.

It will be interesting to see how the show evolves. It's by no means awful, overall though I feel it's not as good as it (likely) thinks it is.


*though a different kind of legal drama, I feel Seasons 1-3 of Damages for example were far superior to this. Shame no-one saw it!



On the subject of Damages, I also did Seasons 1 and 2 of Bloodline, from the same writing team/creators. It's very like Damages stylistically, how the story is told and in the use of flashbacks, but despite a promising start I feel loses its way in S2. it is slow, but there's some very fine acting though from Ben Mendelsohn and Kyle Chandler in it. If you haven't watched Damages, watch that instead maybe.....
S1: 8/10
S2: 6/10

Mizu_Ger

pixelburp wrote: »

Black Mass (2015)

Very much the standard US Crime Epic, tropes n' all, with the occasional creative flourish behind the lens giving some distinction. But the main, defining element can only be Johnny Depp, with the actor yet again dominating the screen for all the wrong reasons, demonstrating his insistence on slathering himself with make-up or donning a silly wig. In this case, the aesthetically bizarre decision was to encase himself in exaggerated prosthetics, resulting in an appearance that resembled a Boston-accented Nosferatu.

This doesn't suggest an accident by the make-up department either, as various shots seemed to intentionally frame Depp in deep shadow, his contact lenses, coupled with those prosthetics giving off an atmosphere akin to a horror movie; the monster lying in the dark ready to pounce. Frankly, I don't think it worked at all and Depps performance and face was constantly distracting among all the other actors simply trying to act a little more naturally; his monstrous appearance just created a jarring tone throughout the production.

I agree with all this too. But despite all this he was the most boring character in the whole film. The character could have been sidelined completely and it wouldn't have affected the story (probably would have made it better).

cowboyBuilder

The Terminator

I got a chance to see this on the big screen (DCP) and was absolutely amazed by it ! - the sound !! wow ..
Great audience too , got a good few rounds of applause

What a great film , 32 years :eek: later and still dates really well (apart from the dodgy latex), I can only
imagine what a blast it must have been to see this back in 1984..

At least this timeless classic will never be bollixed around with.

Padraig Mor

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

The Terminator

I got a chance to see this on the big screen (DCP) and was absolutely amazed by it ! - the sound !! wow ..
Great audience too , got a good few rounds of applause

What a great film , 32 years :eek: later and still dates really well (apart from the dodgy latex), I can only
imagine what a blast it must have been to see this back in 1984..

At least this timeless classic will never be bollixed around with.

Great film and arguably better than T2. T2 is a hell of a show but after repeated viewings of both, the leaner, meaner original shades it for me.

Tony EH

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

The Terminator

I got a chance to see this on the big screen (DCP) and was absolutely amazed by it ! - the sound !! wow ..
Great audience too , got a good few rounds of applause

What a great film , 32 years :eek: later and still dates really well (apart from the dodgy latex), I can only
imagine what a blast it must have been to see this back in 1984..

At least this timeless classic will never be bollixed around with.

For me, it's Cameron's best film, after 'Aliens' of course, which will always be his masterpirce. You have to look past the dodgy Stan Winston animatronics, of course, but it's still a great film.

I often wonder, do kids today look back at the effects in films like 'The Terminator' the same way I did with Ray Harryhausen effects in the likes of 'Jason and the Argonauts', or 'Sinbad'? Entertaining and admirable, but quaint.

Tony EH

Great film and arguably better than T2. T2 is a hell of a show but after repeated viewings of both, the leaner, meaner original shades it for me.

For me, it's light years ahead of 'Terminator 2'. Always thought that film was junk tbh.

cowboyBuilder

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Great film and arguably better than T2. T2 is a hell of a show but after repeated viewings of both, the leaner, meaner original shades it for me.

I would have thought T2 just shaded Terminator - until last night, and I allready got to see T2 twice on the big screen so I think my mind is firmly changed now

Still T2 a great film, and the end of the Terminator universe.

MilesMorales1

I finally watched Mary Poppins and goodness me, that is one amazing movie. I was entranced by it, and blown away, I was smiling the whole way through. Great music, fab acting, great dance numbers, surprisingly nuanced story, and gosh it was just amazing. I loved it.

pixelburp

Zoolander 2 (2016)

An absolute self-indulgent, narcissistic mess of a film, whose very existence I suspect - ignoring the financial success of Zoolander - was simply down to Ben Stiller's celebrity friends egging him on so they could have a 'hilarious' walk-on cameo in the sequel. And as the quotation marks suggest, almost none of those cameos were worth a smile, nevermind hilarious. 'Obnoxious' would be a better word. The mass of cameos isn't even an advisable source for a drinking game, you'd give yourself alcohol poisoning.

The first film was quotable and very funny. Completely idiotic for sure, but the lunacy was kinda contagious. This sequel was simply idiotic, and not in any loveable manner. It frequently fell into the standard trap of the studio-mandated comedy sequel, trying to re-stage gags in an desperate attempt to latch onto the good will from that first production. And what little new material was there either died on arrival, or was too limp for any comedian to work with.

ButtersSuki

pixelburp wrote: »

Zoolander 2 (2016)

An absolute self-indulgent, narcissistic mess of a film, whose very existence I suspect - ignoring the financial success of Zoolander - was simply down to Ben Stiller's celebrity friends egging him on so they could have a 'hilarious' walk-on cameo in the sequel. And as the quotation marks suggest, almost none of those cameos were worth a smile, nevermind hilarious. 'Obnoxious' would be a better word. The mass of cameos isn't even an advisable source for a drinking game, you'd give yourself alcohol poisoning.

The first film was quotable and very funny. Completely idiotic for sure, but the lunacy was kinda contagious. This sequel was simply idiotic, and not in any loveable manner. It frequently fell into the standard trap of the studio-mandated comedy sequel, trying to re-stage gags in an desperate attempt to latch onto the good will from that first production. And what little new material was there either died on arrival, or was too limp for any comedian to work with.

I paid to watch it in the cinema so count your blessings. Despite loving the original, I gave it the lowest score of any movie I've ever watched on here.

Chain Smoker

The Neon Demon
Didn't like it at all, probably less than Only God Forgives and I hated that. Still think Refn can do something good again but less and less certain that he will.

Snake Plisken

Tony EH wrote: »

For me, it's Cameron's best film, after 'Aliens' of course, which will always be his masterpirce. You have to look past the dodgy Stan Winston animatronics, of course, but it's still a great film.

I often wonder, do kids today look back at the effects in films like 'The Terminator' the same way I did with Ray Harryhausen effects in the likes of 'Jason and the Argonauts', or 'Sinbad'? Entertaining and admirable, but quaint.

Agreed Aliens is his best followed by Terminator then the Abyss. But I remember going to T2 and being disappointed that Arnie was no longer the bad terminator, it was spectacular and pushed the cgi technology at the time, but I wanted Arnie as a bad terminator. Still Terminator 1 is still a pivotal sci-fi Movie from the 80's along with John Carpenter's The Thing!

Nerdlingr

Saw The Nice Guys last night.

Not great.

Tony EH

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Tony EH wrote: »

For me, it's Cameron's best film, after 'Aliens' of course, which will always be his masterpirce. You have to look past the dodgy Stan Winston animatronics, of course, but it's still a great film.

I often wonder, do kids today look back at the effects in films like 'The Terminator' the same way I did with Ray Harryhausen effects in the likes of 'Jason and the Argonauts', or 'Sinbad'? Entertaining and admirable, but quaint.

Agreed Aliens is his best followed by Terminator then the Abyss. But I remember going to T2 and being disappointed that Arnie was no longer the bad terminator, it was spectacular and pushed the cgi technology at the time, but I wanted Arnie as a bad terminator. Still Terminator 1 is still a pivotal sci-fi Movie from the 80's along with John Carpenter's The Thing!

For me 'Terminator 2' is like the younger brother of a smart guy. He's bigger, physically, than the older brother, but stupid and makes up for his lack of brains by being loud. Unfortunately, he just becomes irritating after a while. The kind of guy that outstays his welcome really fast.

'The Terminator' works on a simple level. It's streamlined, contained and Arnie doesn't have to "act" too much. It really was his most perfect role. Even better than Conan.

And yes, Arnie as bad guy was always a better idea.

MilesMorales1

The Boss is really not funny. I was sitting in a cinema with maybe 6 other people, and most of them were guffawing with laughter at this, and I was just stone faced sitting there. Definitely failed the 6 laugh test. You could tell the entire plot from the trailer, the funniest bits were also in the trailer, I think McCarthy plays the same roles in everything she does (at least everything I've seen), Dinklage was really under used, and the rest was just bleh.

Despicable Me 2 was fine. Better than the boss anyway. Funny enough. I like the minions a lot more in the despicable me movies, basically sketches, since minions are only funny in bite size pieces. I could go on about the plot and the characters and blah blah, but its a kid movie, and its funny, and its charming, and it looks nice, so whatever. Passed the 6 laughs test anyway.

fin12

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

The Boss is really not funny. I was sitting in a cinema with maybe 6 other people, and most of them were guffawing with laughter at this, and I was just stone faced sitting there. Definitely failed the 6 laugh test. You could tell the entire plot from the trailer, the funniest bits were also in the trailer, I think McCarthy plays the same roles in everything she does (at least everything I've seen), Dinklage was really under used, and the rest was just bleh.

Despicable Me 2 was fine. Better than the boss anyway. Funny enough. I like the minions a lot more in the despicable me movies, basically sketches, since minions are only funny in bite size pieces. I could go on about the plot and the characters and blah blah, but its a kid movie, and its funny, and its charming, and it looks nice, so whatever. Passed the 6 laughs test anyway.

Agree about the Boss, really not funny. I think I might have laughed once, a lot of her films are hit or miss, I always look forward to when she has a new film out but a lot of the time its a disappointment, for me her only two funny films so far are the spy and the one she did with Sandra Bullock, the cop one.

HAHA I love the despecable me movies, i think they are way better than the minions, didn't think the minions was great, their special little language would do your head in.

Sugarlumps

Gone with the Wind The Remarkable Rise and Tragic Fall of Lynyrd Skynyrd

Excellent documentary for any music lover.

pinksoir

Casablanca. My first time watching it though of course I was familiar with so much. A near perfect film, snappy and full of wonderful flourishes. It's influence on so much that came after is obvious with tropes, shots, and music making their way into everything from Indiana Jones to the Simpsons.

GreNoLi

Another Earth: Excellent indie sci-fi directorial debut, Brit Marling is a natural, recommended.

ButtersSuki

Room 237 A documentary I heard about firstly on here exploring the themes and symbolism (etc.) of Stanly Kubrick's The Shining. Now I must state that I absolutely can't stand Jack Nicholson and so avoided ever watching The Shining until some time around 2001/2, when I found I was blown away by it. I haven't watched it since but decided to watch this before a rewatch soon as I just bought the Kubrick Blu Ray box set. It's interesting in places and ridiculous in others. you can see how it would divide opinion (as evidenced by the reviews I've read of it on here since its release) but I quite enjoyed it. 7/10.

Eye In The Sky Late to the party on this but again I quite enjoyed it, a couple of errors and a poor last scene apart. Great performances from Rickman and Mirren in particular, although the performances from some of the supporting cast are light by comparison. Too tired to discuss it in more detail! 7/10.

Chain Smoker

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Room 237 A documentary I heard about firstly on here exploring the themes and symbolism (etc.) of Stanly Kubrick's The Shining. Now I must state that I absolutely can't stand Jack Nicholson and so avoided ever watching The Shining until some time around 2001/2, when I found I was blown away by it. I haven't watched it since but decided to watch this before a rewatch soon as I just bought the Kubrick Blu Ray box set. It's interesting in places and ridiculous in others. you can see how it would divide opinion (as evidenced by the reviews I've read of it on here since its release) but I quite enjoyed it. 7/10.

Does that include 70s Jack Nicholson though? Before he became so associated as being Jack Nicholson he was knocking out some really f*cking good performances.

It's something of an achievement that he managed to embrace his over-familiarity as the years went on too.