What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

MilesMorales1

So, DC can't do good movies that aren't Batman right?

Like we saw this with Batman V Superman earlier this year, of course. But I was super optimistic for Suicide Squad, honestly, this looked like the one that would give the DC universe the shot in the arm it so badly needed. Then I saw it.

Suicide Squad is a mess, a disaster of proportions you would hardly believe. Somehow worse than Batman V Superman.

Suicide Squad is astonishingly bad at basic filmmaking, even to a non film making pleb like me - such as edits that naturally flow, plot/pacing that makes sense. There are long stretches where nothing happens, and then **** just escalates unnaturally.

There's entire character arcs that are started and then do nothing and go nowhere. Entries characters that do nothing in fact. Characters do stuff with zero motivation or explanation, or they have several motivations in a short space of time. The Joker and Batman basically serve no purpose in the movie at all. The CGI for the bad guys was atrocious.

Worst of all though, the whole movie is just a boring flop with bad action. There's no cool set pieces, no exciting action. It's bizarre how awful it is.

It's an absolute disaster of a movie, and proof that DC probably needs to reboot its entire movie universe at this point.

Tony EH

Those trailers make it just look like another tedious Fresh Prince vehicle. Another droning cart for him to be captain of. Like every single other film in which he's graced us with his self appointed royalty.

It's becoming easier and easier why Tom Hardy engaged the emergency eject button on this one.

ButtersSuki

Tony EH wrote: »

Those trailers make it just look like another tedious Fresh Prince vehicle. Another droning cart for him to be captain of. Like every single other film in which he's graced us with his self appointed royalty.

It's becoming easier and easier why Tom Hardy engaged the emergency eject button on this one.

I have "Ali" sitting on a shelf in a wrapper on Blu Ray. Though I like/love most of what Michael Mann has done, I just can't watch it....even with Giancarlo Esposito in it too. So I'm asking you....should I?

On another note, I was listening to a podcast the other night and it's the 10th Anniversary of Mann's Miami Vice. The guys on it were singing its praises, so much so I'm wondering did I miss something as I don't remember it being up to much? I'm going to do a rewatch someday soon.

Tony EH

Don't really recall too much of 'Ali', I have to admit, except that I was strangely bored watching it? Which is odd, considering the man it was about. But it's over a decade since I saw it. Another viewing might be different. It's not appalling and actually Smith isn't that bad in it. But Smith's problem is that he's Will Smith.

I will admit to not being a fan of boxing though, or the people therein. Nor have I been too overjoyed by Michael Mann's films for a long, long time.

Give it a go. You may enjoy it. But like Soderberg's 'Che' I came away strangely uninformed and nonplussed.

As for 'Miami Vice', it's very much a product of its time. I watched a few a couple of years ago for the first time since the 80's and was struck at how gritty some of it was. IIRC though it eventually became almost a parody of itself but the time it was axed.

ButtersSuki

Tony EH wrote: »

Don't really recall too much of 'Ali', I have to admit, except that I was strangely bored watching it? Which is odd, considering the man it was about. But it's over a decade since I saw it. Another viewing might be different. It's not appalling and actually Smith isn't that bad in it. But Smith's problem is that he's Will Smith.

I will admit to not being a fan of boxing though, or the people therein. Nor have I been too overjoyed by Michael Mann's films for a long, long time.

Give it a go. You may enjoy it. But like Soderberg's 'Che' I came away strangely uninformed and nonplussed.

As for 'Miami Vice', it's very much a product of its time. I watched a few a couple of years ago for the first time since the 80's and was struck at how gritty some of it was. IIRC though it eventually became almost a parody of itself but the time it was axed.

Ta!

Re. Miami Vice, I meant the Colin Farrell & Jamie Foxx movie!

Have the complete to series too...impulse purchase, not sure I'll ever watch it though.

Mike Litoris

Looper007 wrote: »

Everybody Wants Some (2016)

Richard Linklater's sort of follow up to his classic Dazed and Confused, this time set in the 80's around a group of college baseballers over a few days. Although it probably lacks the heart and characters of Dazed and Confused, it's still a hugely enjoyable film with a kick ass 80's soundtrack mixing everything from Disco, Funk Punk and Rock. Although it hasn't got a character like McConaughey's Wooderson and whatever female characters are in it are either just used for the guy's to get with, only Zoey Deutch (daughter of Back to The Future's Lea Thompson) gets any sort of character build even that is only given a small amount of screen time near the end. But Blake Jenner as Jake was likeable, Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt Russell) is probably this film's Wooderson but isn't as memorable. Glen Powell as Finnegan as the group's smart ass is probably the stand out. Like Dazed and Confused, you don't get any plot just the guys going from party to party then some practice the back to partying. A good not a classic follow up but well worth watching 8/10.

Less/no soul but more laughs compared to Dazed and Confused. Some big belly laughs! An enjoyable watch but felt a bit pointless.

D'Agger

The Departed: Classic cat & mouse tale with fantastic performances - Don't think I'll ever get tired of it

Tony EH

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Re. Miami Vice, I meant the Colin Farrell & Jamie Foxx movie!
.

Oh?

No. Haven't seen that and it's extremely unlikely that I ever will. Ditto '21 Jump Street' and 'Starsky and Hutch'.

ButtersSuki

D'Agger wrote: »

The Departed: Classic cat & mouse tale with fantastic performances - Don't think I'll ever get tired of it

Have you watched Infernal Affairs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4R3nHkqyfM

At the risk of stating the blindlingly obvious....you do you The Departed is a remake of this?

ButtersSuki

Tony EH wrote: »

Oh?

No. Haven't seen that and it's extremely unlikely that I ever will. Ditto '21 Jump Street' and 'Starsky and Hutch'.

Ah now in fairness I wouldn't put it in the same grouping as those two!

david75

Some pals raving about this. Gonna watch it later.
https://youtu.be/hchLaH8gf1s

ButtersSuki

The Walk with Joseph Gordon Levitt and others on 3D Blu Ray at home. If you don't know the story it's the tale of Frenchman Philippe who walked a tight wire between the World Trade Centre Towers. The 3D at times is amazing (so much so I wish I'd seen it in the IMAX when it was here), at other times it's very fake though and that's a big part of what makes this imperfect - it's like director Robert Zemeckis is sweating the technology too much, and he's trying too hard in places. Levitt's accent however is surprisingly good (I was expecting this to be awful), but he's let down by some of the supporting cast's (incl. Ben Kingsley's bizarre Czech/French/English hybrid) accented efforts.

"Man On Wire" is a much more involving, interesting and absorbing telling of the same tale - if you haven't seen that, have a look for it. This isn't awful by any means, it's "nice" in that family-friendly way (Petit was a bit of a boyo in real life, he comes across as an angel in this). I'd give this a 6/10 (and a lot of that is for the effects when they are good).

Outlaw Pete

Nerve.

Garbage.

Getting some decent reviews too but hated it.

Great premise for a film though. Shame they wasted it.

Glebee

david75 wrote: »

Some pals raving about this. Gonna watch it later.
https://youtu.be/hchLaH8gf1s

Strange film, dont actually know what to make of it.. Worth a look though.

Ageyev

ButtersSuki wrote: »

I have "Ali" sitting on a shelf in a wrapper on Blu Ray. Though I like/love most of what Michael Mann has done, I just can't watch it....even with Giancarlo Esposito in it too. So I'm asking you....should I?

On another note, I was listening to a podcast the other night and it's the 10th Anniversary of Mann's Miami Vice. The guys on it were singing its praises, so much so I'm wondering did I miss something as I don't remember it being up to much? I'm going to do a rewatch someday soon.

Can you link me to the podcast? I'm curious...

There was a bit of furore at the time. Therebwas rumours of conflict on set, hurricanes etc. Farrell was mad off his head - this was the last of his mad run from 2002ish after he exploded and took big roles he didn't always it into or the film flopped.

Theres some great shotsmin it (Mann started using digital cameras on this) but the plot is messy. The US director is a bit tidier.

ButtersSuki

Ageyev wrote: »

Can you link me to the podcast? I'm curious...

There was a bit of furore at the time. Therebwas rumours of conflict on set, hurricanes etc. Farrell was mad off his head - this was the last of his mad run from 2002ish after he exploded and took big roles he didn't always it into or the film flopped.

Theres some great shotsmin it (Mann started using digital cameras on this) but the plot is messy. The US director is a bit tidier.

On mobile and away from home for the next few days so can't link it but it was one of the Bill Simmons Podcasts (he's a US sports guy). There's a large number of different types on different sports and I can't remember exactly which one it was but it will be in my history on my Mac, will link in a few days when I get home.

Ageyev

Money Monster

This was alright but it felt like it was lacking something. If you've seen other negotiator/hostage films: its the same formula here.

John Q
Started watching this but fell asleep. Standard US moralism around political economies of services mixed with standard hostage scenario.

Fysh

david75 wrote: »

Some pals raving about this. Gonna watch it later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hchLaH8gf1s

I fixed the embed in the quoted post - the film is Tale of Tales.

I saw this a month or so back and thought it was really good - a fairytale that actually looks and feels like a Brothers Grimm fairytale. I really enjoyed it, and the visuals in particular were lovely.

If you like that and want something similar but perhaps a bit odder, you could do worse than checking out the wonderful Blancanieves, which is a black-and-white Snow White & The Seven Dwarves In Spanish With Bullfighting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmQir83IoBE

The Black Oil

1985's Lifeforce

Good old Brits and Americans in space. Something happens, it's odd. Soon after, we're back on Earth, a transition I found a little abrupt. Peter Firth plays an SAS colonel, whilst Steve Railsback is with the USAF. There's some female nudity which seemed a bit gratuitous, but perhaps symptomatic of the genre and decade. This character is the lead alien. Bit of a Terminator thing going on. The effects were old school practical stuff. Watchable, if underwhelming.

rednik

The Manchurian Candidate 1962 Criterion Collection. Super transfer of a great film. Great performance by three leads.

johnny_ultimate

Wiener Dog - Do you like adorable dogs? I've got good and bad news for you! Good news: Wiener Dog has an adorable dog as the central character. Bad news: it's in a Todd Solondz film.

Discomforting, grim and blackly comic even by the director's standards, this is mostly a pitch black reflection on mortality driven forward by said adorable dog being passed from owner to owner. There's some great stuff here - particularly performances from Greta Gerwig, Danny de Vito and Ellen Burstyn and indeed plenty of others too. It is often riotously funny - was semi relieved to hear so many people in the cinema laughing heartily at a comic setpiece involving a mother comforting her child with a tale of horrifying dog rape. And it goes all in with it's vicious commentary on modern America and the despair of its assorted characters.

As a film clearly divided into four parts, it suffers the same problem as many anthologies - an unevenness that repeatedly asks the audience to readjust their focus and connections. Not helping things is that the film is arguably top-loaded with the two strongest chapters, although the latter two pack strong climaxes. So the quality control isn't 100% there, but mostly it's all handled with a solid directorial through-line.

Assorted Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton shorts - through the first disc of Master of Cinema's exemplary new collection of Keaton shorts. These are all Arbuckle joints, with Keaton on the sidelines. Arbuckle is a less likeable screen presence and his characters are often horrid people, but he's crazy charismatic and gifted in front of the camera nonetheless. He's a notably lesser filmmaker than Keaton, and the films dated much more overtly as a result - and the sometimes appalling treatment of black characters means you're very much dealing with late 10s/early 20s sensibilities here.

Still, push through the racial (and gender) insensitivities and there's plenty of historical and cinematic value here. The films seem to have grown increasingly confident as they go along, and there's a marked improvement in production values and stylisation when the crew head LA-way. The comedy is almost always crude, but there's some fun experimentation with what was still a very primitive period for cinema. As a Keaton fanatic, I'm waiting to get to his own stretch of masterpieces, but it's fascinating adding the master evolve within the confines of somebody else's work. And there's a handful of sequences - like an impressive bank robbery sequence gone wrong at the end of The Bellboy - that wouldn't look out of place in a full-on Keaton joint.

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion - When exploitation meets art. Rarely have trash and directorial ambition collided in such fascinating fashion. There's plenty of gratituous sex and violence in this 'women in prison' film (apparently an entire subgenre in 60s/70s Japanese cinema), but Shunya Ito gives it ****ing everything he's got. There's a formally audacious flashback sequence in particular that's a wonder in terms of doing so much with so little material. But the film is sprinkled with moments of ingenuity that elevate it, and even makes efforts to critique itself and the social context it arrived in (the motif of the Japanese flag matched with scenes of sex or violence pops up on quite a few occasions throughout). There's also a sequence where the roles of the male guards and female prisoners are reversed that still seems extremely provocative four decades later.

So yeah: if a director has to do genre film, this is how you should do it. I've heard the first sequel is of an even greater magnitude of nuttiness and quality, so looking forward to that.

The Black Oil

The Night of the Comet

80s haircuts - check
Red sky/apocalypse - check
Toshbia tape deck/radio - check
Zombie science - check
Classic quotes - check
Gun fight in a shop - check
Lead woman who doesn't panic, can drive a motorbike, fight and play a mean arcade game - check, check, check, check

Honestly, this was far better than much of the dross we're served up now.

Harry Palmr

The Anniversary (1968) Dir Roy Ward Baker

Unusual Hammer studios outing featuring a scenery chewing Bette Davis as the matriarch from hell as her sons gather to mark the death of their father. Full of top bitchy dialogue Davis even has an eye patch, well several of them in different colours.

Decuc500

Inside Llewyn Davis

What a great film. The Coen's at their most quirky and funniest best. Some great cameos and fantastic music.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

The Black Oil wrote: »

The Night of the Comet

80s haircuts - check
Red sky/apocalypse - check
Toshbia tape deck/radio - check
Zombie science - check
Classic quotes - check
Gun fight in a shop - check
Lead woman who doesn't panic, can drive a motorbike, fight and play a mean arcade game - check, check, check, check

Honestly, this was far better than much of the dross we're served up now.

I watched this tonight based solely on this post and I don't know whether to thank you or track you down and punch you in the face.

I don't understand what was happening, the dialogue was terrible, a lot of the acting was cheesy as F and yet... it was quite enjoyable.

Tony EH

It's one of those films. Personally, I've never liked it, yet I've seen it about 6 times?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Guardians of the Galaxy

Watched it on Netflix this evening.

I just don't get the appeal of these Marvel/comic films. It's the same thing over and over. Brief introduction to characters, build up to little fight, little fight, new plan, build up to big fight, 20 minutes of big fight, end.

Chris Pratt is quite charming and there were a few funny bits, mainly involving the big red guy, but all in all it's the same as every other one of these that I've watched.

I don't really know what the main plot was either, the bad guys backstory and motives were pretty paper thin and I couldn't understand half of what they were saying most of the time. And what was the point of Karen Gillen's character? I assume she'll be the villain in the next one otherwise she was a pretty useless addition to the film.

fin12

The Shallows, Blake lively.

Pretty decent Shark film.
I wouLd recommend this film.

Lot of suspense and jump moments.

david75

Tale of tales was a visual feast. Sumptuous. Hate sounding like an Irish times reviewer but it really is worth your time. Strange twist on the usual understanding of filmed fairy tales. It's really good.

Basq

Let's Kill Wards Wife - an undemanding brief (82 minute) black comedy on Netflix with a mish-mash of actors from Scrubs and Felicity including Donald Faison, Scott Foley, Greg Grunberg, Amy Acker and Patrick Wilson. Watchable enough but I've seen better black comedies.

Joshy - another star-studded movie if you watch US comedies. Cast includes Adam Pally, Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll, Jenny Slate, Brett Gelman and also has appearances from Jake Johnson, Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie. Really enjoyed this.. a bit bleak and quite slow but some cracking performances in it.