What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

ButtersSuki

Dog Soldiers on DVD, first time full watch - I had watched the first 15-20mins years ago but never got around to a full viewing. I'm confused by it tbh, insofar as I can't decide if it was genius, utter horseshoyte or something in between (I can imagine it has divided opinion along those lines). It has some great moments - the opening starts off really well and the tension building at times is very good; but then there's some God-awful and cringey dialogue mixed in with some really bad acting and some really bad special effects. I'll give it a slightly confused 6/10.

charlie_says

Spirited Away.

Such a fantastic playful and funny movie. So many brilliant characters.

Better than I remembered it.

Essential animation.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Les Combattants

Or "Love at First Fight" which is the English title.

Nice little French film, your typical boy meets girl, girl is hell bent on joining the special forces so she can learn survival skills for when the world ends, boy signs up for army boot camp so he can spend time with girl kind of film.

It's actually really enjoyable and the third act went a kind of surprising way. It's lighthearted at times but not what I'd call a RomCom or maybe it's like an old fashioned RomCom where the characters are not just cardboard cutouts and the humour is natural and charming. Anyway, I liked it.

NyOmnishambles

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Dog Soldiers on DVD, first time full watch - I had watched the first 15-20mins years ago but never got around to a full viewing. I'm confused by it tbh, insofar as I can't decide if it was genius, utter horseshoyte or something in between (I can imagine it has divided opinion along those lines). It has some great moments - the opening starts off really well and the tension building at times is very good; but then there's some God-awful and cringey dialogue mixed in with some really bad acting and some really bad special effects. I'll give it a slightly confused 6/10.

I love Dog Soldiers while acknowledging that it has many faults but it is just great fun and moves along at a good pace

I also loved that they named a character Spoon just for the "There is no spoon" reference

Noveight

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Dog Soldiers on DVD, first time full watch - I had watched the first 15-20mins years ago but never got around to a full viewing. I'm confused by it tbh, insofar as I can't decide if it was genius, utter horseshoyte or something in between (I can imagine it has divided opinion along those lines). It has some great moments - the opening starts off really well and the tension building at times is very good; but then there's some God-awful and cringey dialogue mixed in with some really bad acting and some really bad special effects. I'll give it a slightly confused 6/10.

Of all the werewolf movies I've seen, I think there version of the monsters were the most terrifying :eek:

LionelNashe

Deadpool - excellent. Most superhero movies are meh but this was very darkly funny.

Mississippi Grind - Ryan Reynolds again - never heard of him before Deadpool but now I see that he was in one of the Blade films that I saw years ago. Mississipi Grind is interesting. A film about gambling and being directionless in the middle of your life, basically. Not what I was expecting.

The Last Witch Hunter - is 99c to rent on Itunes this week. Not terrible.

Superman vs Batman - Meh.

Chain Smoker

Was on a plane there a few days ago with a pretty amazing selection of films. Tried to pick things I couldn't easily watch at any time at home.


High Noon
Everything seemed slightly off in that kind of way some noirs do (e.g. Pickup of South Street), where it's kind of hard to tell whether the director is kind of crap or just isn't suited to the genre.
Nonetheless, Gary Cooper's great and Grace Kelly does a very good job with a bit of a nothing character. Liked it overall, could've been a lot better. Katy Jurado is a terrible terrible actor.

Our Sister's Sister
I almost turned around to the stranger beside me to say "THERE'S A KOREEDA FILM IN THE OPTIONS!!!!"
So yeah, it's not his tip top tier stuff but it's ****ing lovely and sweet and charming and beautiful and sweet f*cking christ I love this man's films.

The Mermaid
Definitely more a Stephen Chow admirer than a fan, he can be incredibly funny in a very silly way but he does miss a lot too. Was mostly pretty fun, the CGI was so awful that I felt a bit embarrassed that other people on the flight could see what I was watching though.

Chain Smoker

Was on a plane there a few days ago with a pretty amazing selection of films. Tried to pick things I couldn't easily watch at any time at home.


High Noon
Everything seemed slightly off in that kind of way some noirs do (e.g. Pickup of South Street), where it's kind of hard to tell whether the director is kind of crap or just isn't suited to the genre.
Nonetheless, Gary Cooper's great and Grace Kelly does a very good job with a bit of a nothing character. Liked it overall, could've been a lot better. Katy Jurado is a terrible terrible actor.

Our Sister's Sister
I almost turned around to the stranger beside me to say "THERE'S A KOREEDA FILM IN THE OPTIONS!!!!"
So yeah, it's not his tip top tier stuff but it's ****ing lovely and sweet and charming and beautiful and sweet f*cking christ I love this man's films.

The Mermaid
Definitely more a Stephen Chow admirer than a fan, he can be incredibly funny in a very silly way but he does miss a lot too. Was mostly pretty fun, the CGI was so awful that I felt a bit embarrassed that other people on the flight could see what I was watching though.

Tony EH

Chain Smoker wrote: »

High Noon
Everything seemed slightly off in that kind of way some noirs do (e.g. Pickup of South Street), where it's kind of hard to tell whether the director is kind of crap or just isn't suited to the genre.
Nonetheless, Gary Cooper's great and Grace Kelly does a very good job with a bit of a nothing character. Liked it overall, could've been a lot better. Katy Jurado is a terrible terrible actor.

One of its greatest assets, I think CS.

I love the offbeat nature of 'High Noon'. The first of the "revisionist westerns" that saw directors throw out the rule book and just as well. The genre had become stale and totally cliched by the time it was made. Howard Hawks hated it. He even made 'Rio Bravo' to balance out the yin and yang.

D'Agger

Suicide Squad:

Solid 6.5 out of 10, thought most of it was fine barring one or two scenes that seemed to be jammed in there to emphasize how crazy a certain character was which made the story jump around a bit - normally I'd say that detracted from the story, but in this instance it didn't really matter all that much because the emphasis was solely on the characters - the story was a complete afterthought and it showed - it was obvious the plot was not the important component of this movie in the eyes of those who made it which was disappointing and robbed me of the spectacle this teased to be with two well put together trailers.

De Bhál

Lone Survivor on RTE 1 just now.
Watchable Afghanistan war movie based on a true story about navy seals.

Predictable gung ho stuff with some dubious decision making from the seals that lands them in trouble.

Watchable though.

Heckler

For the first time (this year !).

Once were Warriors. A few dodgy acting performances aside an absolute gut punch of a film. For those who've seen it, THAT scene wrecks me. But its also so much more than that.

Tremendous film

Heckler

In the middle of Goodfellas. A fantastic movie but claiming bob/jimmy conway as 26 and henry/Ray as 21 is stretching it a bit.

De niro was 47 and Liotta was 36.

Decuc500

Had a rewatch of Looper, a crazily inventive and stylish sci-fi movie. Terminator meets The Fury. I'd say Rian Johnson will deliver a very good Star Wars movie next year.

Heckler

In the middle of Now you see me 2.

Actually worse than the smug ****e that is its predecessor.

Not one likeable character.

Like Mark Ruffalo in most everything but even he can't save this mess.

Getting to the finale now. This movie is bonkers. Makes no sense in any shape or form.

A movie called F/X did it better 30 years ago with Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy. Even spawned a tv show thats better than this nonsense.

Vans marked FBI in London ffs. Gonna see it through to the end.

Utter ****e.

Just ended. Atrocious crap.

Chain Smoker

Tony EH wrote: »

One of its greatest assets, I think CS.

I love the offbeat nature of 'High Noon'.

Agreed on the whole actually, but I'm not sure how much was intentional. I've definitely disliked the director's work in other films and I feel like this one benefitted almost from an absence of direction more than anything else

droidman123

Watched the Belgian movie,the treatment (2014) last night.what a brilliant movie,it will chew you up and spit you out! Some uncomfortable parts to watch in it,but on the whole it will keep you glued to it for its entirety.i find it hard to find a movie these days that I don't start fiddling around with my phone in the middle of it,but this movie blew me away.another classic I watched recently is" other people's lives", a German Movie set during the cold war in East Berlin about the stasi, wonderful film.

bitethebullet

droidman123 wrote: »

Watched the Belgian movie,the treatment (2014) last night.what a brilliant movie,it will chew you up and spit you out! Some uncomfortable parts to watch in it,but on the whole it will keep you glued to it for its entirety.i find it hard to find a movie these days that I don't start fiddling around with my phone in the middle of it,but this movie blew me away.another classic I watched recently is" other people's lives", a German Movie set during the cold war in East Berlin about the stasi, wonderful film.

Wow ...What a film. Best i've seen in a long time. Not for everyone though.
Thanks for the rec. I'll definitely check out that German one.

droidman123

bitethebullet wrote: »

Wow ...What a film. Best i've seen in a long time. Not for everyone though.
Thanks for the rec. I'll definitely check out that German one.

Another great one which i watched recently is das letze schweigen (the last secret) 2010.
Everytime i see some of these "foreign language" movies it makes me realise how so far ahead they are of some of the hollywood crap being dished up.

Tony EH

Chain Smoker wrote: »

Agreed on the whole actually, but I'm not sure how much was intentional. I've definitely disliked the director's work in other films and I feel like this one benefitted almost from an absence of direction more than anything else

Um...given a choice between the two, there are more Zinnemann films I'd watch (again) than there are of Hawks', even though the latter outnumbers the former.

I get what you mean though. Both are quite workman like, in that 50's Hollywood way.

Ipso

Heckler wrote: »

In the middle of Now you see me 2.

Actually worse than the smug ****e that is its predecessor.

Not one likeable character.

Like Mark Ruffalo in most everything but even he can't save this mess.

Getting to the finale now. This movie is bonkers. Makes no sense in any shape or form.

A movie called F/X did it better 30 years ago with Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy. Even spawned a tv show thats better than this nonsense.

Vans marked FBI in London ffs. Gonna see it through to the end.

Utter ****e.

Just ended. Atrocious crap.

So, did you like it?

j.s. pill II

droidman123 wrote: »

Watched the Belgian movie,the treatment (2014) last night.what a brilliant movie,it will chew you up and spit you out! Some uncomfortable parts to watch in it,but on the whole it will keep you glued to it for its entirety.i find it hard to find a movie these days that I don't start fiddling around with my phone in the middle of it,but this movie blew me away.another classic I watched recently is" other people's lives", a German Movie set during the cold war in East Berlin about the stasi, wonderful film.

The Benelux countries sometimes churn out some cracking films. I'd highly recommend Bullhead (2011) and The memory of a killer (2003) if you haven't seen them

And just a small point of information - the German film you're referring to is called "The lives of others" - just in case anyone's google searches have yielded nothing!

droidman123

j.s. pill II wrote: »

The Benelux countries sometimes churn out some cracking films. I'd highly recommend Bullhead (2011) and The memory of a killer (2003) if you haven't seen them

And just a small point of information - the German film you're referring to is called "The lives of others" - just in case anyone's google searches have yielded nothing!

Thanks,i will definitly check out those two movies,most of the movies i watch these days are foreign language ones.and yes,you are right about "the lives of others"or the german title" Das Leben der Anderen". Cracking movie.

ButtersSuki

The Staircase 8 part (so it takes a bit of commitment) documentary (it's on vimeo and other online sites) about the trial of a man accused of murdering his wife. It's a fascinating insight into the workings of the US legal system, the role on the media in these trials, the financial costs involved in mounting a defence, the role of expert witnesses etc. Some of the attitudes seem biazree given the trail took place in 2003

esp. the parts about the husband's sexual preferences - I just can't imagine these being admitted today

. A very, very interesting watch. 8/10.

droidman123

Just finished watching "the unknown woman" (2006) im not normally big on italian movies but this one is a doozey,and the morricone score is amazing.basically its the story of a woman who wheedles her way into a job as a maid with a well to do family in italy,the movie tells her story as to the reason why.it would take a heart of ice not to be moved by this movie.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Watched "A Doctor's Sword" on RTÉ tonight. Really interesting story about an Irish doctor who joined the British army just before WW2, survived Dunkirk only to be sent to Singapore, get captured by the Japanese, kept as a POW for 3 years and eventually ends up in Nagasaki when the bomb is dropped.

As I said, the story is really interesting itself but the way the documentary is made is a bit all over the place. It starts with the family having this sword that their dad was given in Japan but they're not 100% sure why this Japanese commander gave it to him, along with a picture of himself. So one sister sets off for Japan to find out their dad's story but that's intercut with the other sister at home in Cork telling the bloody story AND clips from a radio interview the man himself did before he died to promote the book he wrote telling the whole story himself.

I would assume they went to Japan hoping to get the other side of the story of the sword but *spoiler* they get nothing they didn't already know. There's some nice little animated bits to go along with the radio clips, I would have cut the Japan stuff and put more of these in, especially when the whole trip seemed pretty pointless.

All in all I'd say yer man's book is probably worth tracking down.

ButtersSuki

Weiner Documentary about ex-US Congressman Anthony Weiner's campaign to run for Mayor of New York. In case you don't know the back story Weiner had to resign from Congress for sexting and sending pics to various women, so returning to political life in as high a profile way as this was certainly brave. Fascinating both from the protagonist's point of view, but also how the media treated him and his campaign. 8/10.

8-10

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Weiner Documentary about ex-US Congressman Anthony Weiner's campaign to run for Mayor of New York. In case you don't know the back story Weiner had to resign from Congress for sexting and sending pics to various women, so returning to political life in as high a profile way as this was certainly brave. Fascinating both from the protagonist's point of view, but also how the media treated him and his campaign. 8/10.

+1 enjoyed this

Sugarlumps

Weiner Dog, managed an hour. Utter shíte.

johnny_ultimate

Childhood of a Leader - You know those films where the score alone ensures it's essential viewing? Because Scott Walker's violently orchestral compositions here almost certainly amount to one of the great recent scores of recent times.

The film itself is a sometimes frustrating, always chilly, but undeniably assured and fascinating directorial debut from actor Brady Corbett. Haneke, Dreyer etc are bold inspirations to draw from, and for the most part this establishes its own vibe (even if the bulk of the film boasts little of the visceral approach employed in the prologue and epilogue). Dat soundtrack though.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 - Easily one of the best sequels ever made. A potentially disposable, exploitative rape revenge thriller becomes a brilliantly surreal, nutty, and provocative work thanks to the go-for-broke direction of Shunya Ito. It's a surprisingly nuanced and unromantised feminist statement to boot. It cannot entirely escape the exploitation genre and its shaky foundations, but it frequently and thrillingly transcends them.

Female Scorpion Prisoner: Beast Stable - sadly, despite the return of Ito, this is a step down. It still boasts some remarkable visuals and setpieces - a sewer illuminated by dozens of falling matches is a highlight - but narratively and thematically it's more uncertain. Enough ideas to justify its existence, plus a particularly confident performance from Meiko Kaji. But just can't maintain the extraordinary force of its predecessor.

Behemoth - Remarkable piece of filmmaking. As aesthetically confident and captivating as documentary making gets - capturing the China's mines and quarries in frightening detail. A startling portrait of the sort of conditions the country's millions of migrant workers face. Probably wouldn't lose much if the Dante's Inferno framing and linking motifs were excised, but they do add some general thematic structure.