What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

johnny_ultimate

Chain Smoker wrote: »

How does it compare to Gray's last two films? I'm a bit surprised Gray got the chance to make such an epic after showing how unable he is to generate any kind of audience at all.

Man, I suppose it's a step up that this one actually got a theatrical release in europe, James Gray's films are made for cinema in a way few others are, but it's already gone from pretty much every cinema near me before I even realised it was out.

Still haven't seen The Immigrant actually, it's been years since I watched Two Lovers but The Lost City of Z is a notch or two above it for sure.

Z is the sort of film I was kinda impressed it ever got made, let alone released as widely as it was. It disappeared swiftly for sure, but miraculous it showed up in multiplexes at all!

david75

Ravenous
Robert Carlyle Guy Pearce.

If you haven't seen this movie. You should. I just love everything about it.
A small outpost on the Western frontier in the middle of nowhere. Robert Carlyle shows up. And carnage ensues.

Wonderful film. Brilliant score too.

Outlaw Pete

Just watched 'See No Evil - The Moors Murders' with Sean Harris from back in 2006.

A difficult watch but very good and Harris is excellent as Brady.

I know it was a TV drama mini series but both parts together qualify it as a TV movie I'm thinking.

Anyway, it's on YouTube for anyone interested and is just over 2 hours 15 mins long.

MilesMorales1

The Lost City Of Z really is almost like a time capsule of a film. It's a film that feels like it was made for an audience with the sensibilities of the 1960s/1970s, just been released in 2017 with a few of the currently big name actors.

I don't mean that as a criticism, cos The Lost City is a really good film, its just a bit jarring when you first consider after watching it. It's interesting to watch rather than exciting and gripping, so take that as you will.

The story of Percy Fawcett charting uncharted amazon territory looking for a lost city whilst abandoning his family back home is a pretty interesting premise on its own, so arguably half the work is done for them, its just unfortunate the story never reaches its full potential, since they've cherry picked certain parts of the story to tell and left out others. There's a hugely unnecessary and silly part involving the first world war which feels really out of place and in there for dramatic licence. The story is at its best when its in the jungle, and at its worst when its in England and during the war, which feels pedestrian by contrast.

Some of the character beats involving Fawcett and his children feel a bit off. There's a bit with a fortune teller that feels like a scene from Blackadder for all the sense it makes, and the ending feels like it doesn't know exactly what it wants to be.

But, its a really good watch. The costume design is superb particularly on the natives of the amazon, and the look of the early 20th century jungle, and the white characters gets to be almost entrancing, more so than the narrative. It looks absolutely amazing with superb cinematography, wish I'd seen the 35mm version.

There's also some superb acting in place, paticularly from Robert Pattison and Sienna Miller, while Charlie Hunnam is a fair bit weaker as our lead character. While he plays a stiff upper lipped English men extremely well, he's somewhat unsympathetic and unengaging, which contributes to the story falling a bit flat, specially towards the end.

So overall, a good decent watch, a film out of its time for sure, but not unwelcome.

Fysh

I caught Noel Clarke's Brotherhood on Netflix recently, having previously enjoyed Kidulthood and Adulthood more than expected. Unfortunately, I thought Brotherhood was weaker than its predecessors - the overarching narrative felt like a warmed-over version of the story in Adulthood (even though the thematic aspects were sound), and the plot is pretty weak. It has some very nice moments (the opening sequence depicting a shooting in a nightclub is quite nicely presented), the use of music throughout works well enough and some of the jokes are very funny, but too many stretches of it are dedicated to either depthless characters, failed attempts at humour, or transparently thin efforts at fleshing out the plot (the villain is involved in people-trafficking and forced prostitution, but this is mainly mentioned to make him Obviously The Bad Guy while simultaneously providing the filmmakers with an excuse to repeatedly have a bunch of attractive naked women standing around in the background).

Adulthood felt like it had some really interesting new territory to stake out which made sense when explored by the characters from Kidulthood, but Brotherhood feels like a film that got made because someone wanted to round out a trilogy, rather than having a clear idea of a story that made sense and would be enhanced by being populated with characters from the previous two films.

Chain Smoker

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Still haven't seen The Immigrant actually, it's been years since I watched Two Lovers but The Lost City of Z is a notch or two above it for sure.

Z is the sort of film I was kinda impressed it ever got made, let alone released as widely as it was. It disappeared swiftly for sure, but miraculous it showed up in multiplexes at all!

The Immigrant's definitely worth a watch, at the very least it's intriguing. In spite of the high ratings on RT and metacritic, I'd imagine it's actually fairly marmitey cos it is kinda odd. If you're waiting for a chance to see it in a cinema it's probably worth holding out (could be decades with that one, mind!). Definitely definitely defffffinitely did not make its money back.
Hopefully this one appears in some second run place near me soonish... watching it at home seems ridiculous.

[I'm a pretty big fan of Two Lovers btw so ymmv RE: the Immigrant]

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6upoz9I7eg

I watched this other night. I thought it was a cute movie.
Well made and well acted, sometimes keeping it simply brings the best out in the actors.

Chain Smoker

I was at a movie marathon thing, so of the ones I hadn't seen before:

Aliens
Man, pretty disappointed tbh. The ensemble (little girl excluded) is great but the film wasn't that engrossing at all, especially with that little girl being in it and all.

Pitch Black
****ing weird bland cheap film, I'm pretty sure it was very bad but I was fairly gripped throughout too
1. I'm surprised this film gathered up enough funding for a budget of $23 million
2. I'm even more surprised that with the biggest star being a pre-F&F/XXX Vin Diesel, that it made $50m+ on the box office
3. Lotta holes and weird jumps
4. Not all the jumps are bad though
5. The premise is kind of neat but unfortunately (to modern eyes, at least) too much of the effects look like mid-00s SyFy garbage
6. Nearly felt like they fired the cinematographer midway through, you can't do that incredibly drained style for out in the sun and not at least carry some of it through into other sequences,

Total Recall
Great dumb fun, Verhoeven can be such a funny director, like, he just gets the tone of some really really dumb **** absolutely perfect. Him and Arnie at this time is a great pairing.

MilesMorales1

Another at best mediocre comedy with a stellar cast? This and Table 19 were released on the same day, so thats a weird coincidence.

Going In Style is a mediocre comedy that squanders its great cast on a poor premise. Old people robbing a bank with some vague message about why its ok cos the banks are bad in there, and about the guys are all nice hard working people with families or connections or something.

So while its not unpleasant to watch Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin bounce off each other and make various jokes about getting old and young people and money and whatever else, its not funny, the life lessons are muddled and stupid, and it really fizzles out to a big shrug of an ending.

Big let down, it ends up as the equivalent of that programme you put on the telly as background noise while doing something more interesting

Harry Palmr

Should have watched the 1979 original with Lee Strasberg, Art Carney, and George Burns.

droidman123

Fuego (2014)
A detectives wife and 10 yr old daughter are blown up in their car by E.T.A, the bomb was meant for him.his wife dies,his daughter survives but loses both her legs.the movies gets going 12 years later when the fire of rage is still burning inside the now retired detective and he sets out for revenge and finality.i really enjoyed the movie,its a bit of a slow burner that builds up to a horrific ending,theres a scene at the end thats extremely hard to watch.it also has the bonus of aida folch,who i happen to think is gorgeous! Definitley recommended movie
8/10

Chain Smoker

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Should have watched the 1979 original with Lee Strasberg, Art Carney, and George Burns.

Fun little film, that one! Great trio too, Art Carney was in a few other films in the 70s that're very solid.

There's a morgan freeman retrospective going on near me atm and, I mean, I know his career didn't really get going until pretty late on, but it's surprising how little of any merit at all that he's been in. He puts in about as much effort into finding good roles as De Niro, but because of his voice and huge limitations as a comedic performer typically gets less humiliating roles than De Niro.

Looper007

Last Detail (1973)

Been on a recent Hal Ashby, probably aside from Francis Ford Coppola, did anyone have a run of classic films in the 70's like Ashby. Flopped on it's release, Two Navy lifer's escort a young Sailor on the way to serving 8 years for stealing 40 dollars from a Charity box, on the way they treat him to a few day's of partying. That's it really, but with prime Jack Nicholson at his very best (Oscar nod for Best actor for his performance). a young and slim Randy Quaid, and Otis Young given fantastic performances from a great Robert Towne script. You can't go wrong, plus I just love the ending to this cause in most other director's hands even today most studios would

Have wanted them to let Quaid's character go, or at least have him and Nicholson's and Young's characters say goodbye. Instead we just have him get handed off and took to jail, no goodbye's or sappy words. Then you have the other two forget him and talk about having to go back to serving

. Such a Ashby ending and it's brilliant.

nacho libre

Reservoir Dogs
The Hateful Eight
The Assignment
Loving
Captain Fantastic
Hell or Highwater
Hacksaw Ridge
Passengers
Fences
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage
Vengeance: A Love Story
Brimstone
Nocturnal Animals
Salt and Fire
Nightcrawler
Jackie


I enjoyed all of them, except for The Assignment and Salt and Fire, which were crap - poor acting, with lousy scripts to boot.

Chain Smoker

Looper007 wrote: »

Last Detail (1973)

Been on a recent Hal Ashby, probably aside from Francis Ford Coppola, did anyone have a run of classic films in the 70's like Ashby.

Man, I dunno. Coming Home is a pretty awful film that got away with at the time due to being topical and what have you. Bound for Glory was pretty boring too.
I am expecting to like the Landlord and Shampoo but I feel like Ashby's legacy (and his influence) greatly exceeds his actual output.

It's a pretty stacked period too, off the top of my head in the US you've got Altman, Malick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Allen, Cassavetes, Lumet (who was around for ages but had a really strong run in there), Friedkin

briany

El Club (2015)

Chilean drama. 4 exiled Catholic priests share a house together in a beachside town. One day, their quiet, relatively pleasant (given the circumstances) is disturbed by the arrival of a new housemate who brings more baggage than just his suitcase, and which threatens the other four's way of life.

Bleak, yet compelling. Not a film to watch if you can't handle themes concerning reasons why priests are sent into seclusion by their church, but if you can stomach that, it's a tense and occasionally blackly funny watch.

4Ad

•City Of Ghosts•
Found this by chance, grim thriller starring Matt Dillon, James Caan and Gerard Depardieu..worth watching but the plot is a bit weak.
I enjoyed it as it was based in Cambodia, and shows real Cambodia, the heat, grime, crime and corrupt society..featured alot of local actors who play some completely off the wall parts..

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Forgive me for taking this thread slightly off topic but I'm wondering if anyone has seen The Book Thief? Anyone who also read the book, that is.

Reason I ask is because it's on Channel 4 on Saturday but it's on at 6:30 which seems a bit early, based on what I remember of the book. I'm wondering if it was watered down a bit for the film or are C4 likely to be showing an edited version in so early a time slot?

I know it's not the most graphic book but I would have thought if they had adapted it faithfully it wouldn't be something that was on TV at dinner time.

droidman123

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Forgive me for taking this thread slightly off topic but I'm wondering if anyone has seen The Book Thief? Anyone who also read the book, that is.

Reason I ask is because it's on Channel 4 on Saturday but it's on at 6:30 which seems a bit early, based on what I remember of the book. I'm wondering if it was watered down a bit for the film or are C4 likely to be showing an edited version in so early a time slot?

I know it's not the most graphic book but I would have thought if they had adapted it faithfully it wouldn't be something that was on TV at dinner time.

I haven't read the book but seen the movie,from what I can remember there is nothing really too graphic in the movie to Warrent a watershed time slot.great movie btw.

NIMAN

I watched the much hyped Moonlight the other night.

Now I must have missed something, but for me it's more a 5/10 rather than a masterpiece of cinema that I read about it.

Am I wrong?

droidman123

NIMAN wrote: »

I watched the much hyped Moonlight the other night.

Now I must have missed something, but for me it's more a 5/10 rather than a masterpiece of cinema that I read about it.

Am I wrong?

I haven't seen the movie,and probably won't watch it,but you could well be right in your assessment.If I am watching a really bad movie,no matter how bad it is,I usually stick to it right to the end,however,last year's Oscar winner,birdman,I had to turn off after an hour,I honestly couldn't take any more.The fact that a movie has won an Oscar means diddly squat in relation to the quality I.m.o

MilesMorales1

I didn't much 'get' Moonlight either. Maybe it just went over my head.


I kept meaning to watch The Perks Of Being A Wall Flower for ages, sort of 2 years ish before they showed it on Film 4 and I got round to it. And while it isn't very good, it got me proper good and steaming angry which is very satisfying. Would have been better to get an enjoyable film, but still.

So Charlie (Logan Lerman) is a introverted (not really) teenager who gets really sad cos no one will be his friend at school till he meets Sam (Emma Watson) and her step brother whose name I can't remember, and he gets in with a crowd of incredible over privileged 'alt' kids who pride themselves on being quirky and different despite actually just the same as the 'popular' kids they claim to dislike. Then there's a whole bunch of boring, pretentious life lessons and quotes from various characters, and Paul Rudd gets nothing to do as a quirky english teacher.


So, its pretentious, overdramatic, makes no sense, and thinks its so much more profound than it is. Logan Lerman wears a vintage suit to school, why? Logan Lerman has the ability to single handedly prevent a hate crime against two jocks how? Someone decides he needs an antique type writing to write poetry on, is this real? Is this a parody? Not a single one of these characters feels a little bit real, as they wallow in their own contrived rich kid problems, all of which somehow get wrapped up in a neat self satisfied little bow.


We are infinite? We accept the love we think we deserve? No one says this, except in terrible films like this, no one.


It's absolute hollow nonsense, really. Performances are all terrible, it tries to craft a weird nostalgia vibe both with the cinematography and the music and completely fails. The film is basically soulless. It's the film equivalent of a cheap easter egg, empty and rubbish tasting.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

^ I really liked The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Was pleasantly surprised by it.

Sad Professor

I feel like The Perks of Being a Wallflower came out 15 years too late and missed its moment. It's like a lost '90s movie.

j.s. pill II

droidman123 wrote: »

In order of disappearence (2014)
A cracking thriller from norway set up the snow filled highlands.a snowplough drivers son is mistakenly killed by the local hoods and be sets out for revenge,it eventually, through circumstances,involves the serbian mafia too.stellen skarsgard plays the lead (i find it impossible to rate him as an actor because he has the exact same emotionless expression in every movie i have seen him in)bruno ganz also makes an appearence as papa,the head of the local serbian mafia.the movie is very coen brothers like, with splashes of black comedy in a rather serious thriller.definitely recommended
8/10

Pretty decent romp. The premise could easily have been hatched by the laziest Hollywood hack but it was quite well executed and the black humor was just superb.

Ole making carrot juice for his henchmen - brilliant!

Watched one called The Void last night from 2016 but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a John Carpenter film from the late 70's early 80's. It's got some issues with exposition for sure but if your a fan of of that kinf of thing this will be a treat , think the thing set in a hospital

with a doctor seeking to make himself immortal and resurrect his daughter.

Sugarlumps

The Shallows: Awful, bar the odd áss shot. Special effects looked extremely cheap. The seagull saved it.

ButtersSuki

The Lego Batman Movie in the cinema. It was genuinely much better than I expected, for what it was 7/10. Far superior to The Lego Movie to be fair.

ButtersSuki

Sugarlumps wrote: »

The Shallows: Awful, bar the odd áss shot. Special effects looked extremely cheap. The seagull saved it.

After reading that i had to see how I rated it:

ButtersSuki wrote: »

The Shallows Wow - and not in a good way. Utterly, utterly ridiculous shark movie. I haven't seen Sharknado (though I own it on Blu Ray) yet but it couldn't be any worse than this. If I was to list all of its flaws it would take me longer to type them than the movie lasted. The only redeeming feature it has is there are some stunningly shot beach scenes and maybe seeing Blake Lively in a bikini for most of the movie gets it a point - even with that it's just a 3/10.

El Duda

Victoria - 9/10

A German made film that follows a young girl on a night out in Berlin. The whole thing is filmed in one shot with no trickery/edits despite the 2hr20minutes running time. Not only is it an unbelievable technical achievement, it is a completely enthralling and involving storyline. It feels very low budget yet 100% authentic thanks to some great camera work.

The first hour is fairly slow but manages to establish the characters really well. The rest of the film is an exhilarating, edge of your seat crime caper. Really really impressive. Apparently they managed this on the third take which is just incredible.


Nocturnal Animals - 7/10

A very grisly, artsy film that starts off feeling very Diet-David Lynch but does eventually become its own thing. Worth watching for Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance alone. He is an absolute revelation. Shannon is also superb and worthy of the Oscar nod.

Not anywhere near as clever as it thinks it is but quite a powerful piece of work. Some of its messages are a bit on the nose. It wasn't as disturbing as it needed to be and I also thought it was the sort of story that would suit a bit of surrealism. It feels it's played a bit too straight for me.


Calvary - 8 / 10

Been meaning to watch this for a while and really enjoyed it. Brendan Gleeson is just an absolute force of nature. Such an effortlessly brilliant actor and this feels like it was tailor made for him. This film establishes such a tone that allows it to hit those bleak, ultra realistic moments whilst meeting them with jet black humour.

Certain scenes/characters have much more impact than others but generally this is a really solidly written piece about one mans struggle with his faith dwindling community.

In another world this script would make a really bleak episode of Father Ted.


Don't Breathe - 4/ 10

I don't usually sit there watching a film with 'cinema sins' going off in my head, but this really annoyed me. It's just such a dumb film. The script is dumb. The characters are dumb. They do dumb things. Nothing makes much sense. Everything is too convenient.

Horror films should at least have internal logic. This films is just everything that is wrong with the American horror at the moment. No one in this film has any redeemable traits. At all. It's one of those rare horror films where the 'villain' is actually the most likable character.

How on earth did this get so many positive reviews? It's pure straight to DVD fodder for me. Baffling. Don't watch.