What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Mr E

Patser wrote: »

Just watched this with my Little One. It's fecking brilliant, the perfect blend of childish stupidity to entertain a 4 year old, with so many adult references to keep me entertained. Actually, genuinely laughed out loud at bits, and it was funny to see adults laugh at bits while kids just looked blankly at them, not getting the joke but kids in knots at the Giant Toilet.

Day after and daughter is currently refusing to have a bath, because she's too busy running around in her pants shouting Tra La La! Wife is starting to get annoyed, while I'm downstairs laughing listening to it all.

Saw Captain Underpants yesterday. An incredibly sharp and witty movie. I had a huge smile on my face for most of it. You can put it on the same pedestal as Pixar movies - there is a lot in there to appeal to both adults and kids. Everyone will get something out of it.

The cast surprised me too. I never picked out Thomas Middleditch and only realised that the lead was played by Ed Helms towards the end of the movie...

Really loved it.

Del.Monte

An oldie but a goodie "The Misfit Brigade" (1987) on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTsOI1lHnVk

A feel good, German anti-war film based on the book "Wheels of Terror" by Sven Hassel. 8/10

Oliver Reed and David Carradine have small parts, but the it's the main cast of the 27th Panzer Penal Regiment sent on a suicide mission behind Russian lines on the Eastern Front that carries the movie. Surprisingly, there haven't been further movies based on the other Sven Hassel books about the exploits of the Penal Regiment.

http://www.svenhassel.net

Tony EH

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Since they're about German soldiers, it's hardly surprising.

Rented that on video, years ago. It was called 'Wheels of Terror' too and not the US title. Didn't think much of it, tbh.

Del.Monte

Tony EH wrote: »

/\

Since they're about German soldiers, it's hardly surprising.

Rented that on video, years ago. It was called 'Wheels of Terror' too and not the US title. Didn't think much of it, tbh.

Don't get what you mean?

Tony EH

Del.Monte wrote: »

Don't get what you mean?

It's not likely to get funding for films about German soldiers.

Del.Monte

Tony EH wrote: »

It's not likely to get funding for films about German soldiers.

Why not, what about the likes of "Das Boot" that's about as anti-war as it gets and it's German.

Tony EH

Movies usually aren't made about the "bad" guys. Not in any abundance anyway and especially not in hollywood.

'Das Boot' is notable because it's one of the few films dealing with the German side of the war and given the sheer scale of their part in the conflict, films about the German Army conspicuous by their absence.

Most movies are either commentaries on the nazis or Hitler. Rarely does a film deal just with the guys at the front. Off the top of my head, "recent" films about German soldiers (without the trappings of nazi this-nazi that) are 'Stalingrad' and 'Cross of Iron'.

There are older films from the 50's like 'Die Brucke' or 'Stalingrad: Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben', or 'The Desert Fox', but even then, they can be counted on your fingers.

Sven Hassel books could be turned into a series of films if the right people came along. They're squad based, with larger than life characters and suitable for small stories in a big war. However, we'll probably never see them. Hassel was "outed" as a liar. He never saw action, wasn't on any of the fronts he claimed to be and there were no such things as penal battalions attached to regular regiments like in his books. Though I don't believe he's ever claimed his stories weren't fiction, he's been somewhat tainted in recent years, especially in his native Denmark.

AFAIK, the film rights for 'Legion of the Damned' have been optioned since the 70's. But nobody is interested in funding it.

Snake Plisken

It Comes at Night (2017)

Really excellent little movie starring Joel Edgerton who stars as a man holed up in his house in the woods with his wife and Son after some deadly plague like virus is killing everyone. Very bleak and claustrophobic but worth a watch a solid 7 out of 10.

charlie_says

Krisha (2015)

Fantastic drama. Soundtrack is exceptional.

Estranged elderly relative is invited for (Thanksgiving I think) dinner after a lengthy absence due to behavior in the past. Things go wrong.

Imagine your worst family gathering and multiply it by 100, add in drugs, alcohol and obsession.

I was really impressed by this. It's hard to believe that this is Trey Edward Shult's directorial debut as it's so good. I watched it on the back of the strength of his recent film, It Comes at Night which I also enjoyed.

Brilliant.

Snake Plisken

charlie_says wrote: »

Krisha (2015)

Fantastic drama. Soundtrack is exceptional.

Estranged elderly relative is invited for (Thanksgiving I think) dinner after a lengthy absence due to behavior in the past. Things go wrong.

Imagine your worst family gathering and multiply it by 100, add in drugs, alcohol and obsession.

I was really impressed by this. It's hard to believe that this is Trey Edward Shults directorial debut as it's so good. I watched it on the back of the strength of his recent film, It Comes at Night which I also enjoyed.

Brilliant.

Thanks I must check his debut out.

Joe_ Public

Tony EH wrote: »

Movies usually aren't made about the "bad" guys. Not in any abundance anyway and especially not in hollywood.

'Das Boot' is notable because it's one of the few films dealing with the German side of the war and given the sheer scale of their part in the conflict, films about the German Army conspicuous by their absence.

Most movies are either commentaries on the nazis or Hitler. Rarely does a film deal just with the guys at the front. Off the top of my head, "recent" films about German soldiers (without the trappings of nazi this-nazi that) are 'Stalingrad' and 'Cross of Iron'.

There are older films from the 50's like 'Die Brucke' or 'Stalingrad: Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben', or 'The Desert Fox', but even then, they can be counted on your fingers.

Sven Hassel books could be turned into a series of films if the right people came along. They're squad based, with larger than life characters and suitable for small stories in a big war. However, we'll probably never see them. Hassel was "outed" as a liar. He never saw action, wasn't on any of the fronts he claimed to be and there were no such things as penal battalions attached to regular regiments like in his books. Though I don't believe he's ever claimed his stories weren't fiction, he's been somewhat tainted in recent years, especially in his native Denmark.

AFAIK, the film rights for 'Legion of the Damned' have been optioned since the 70's. But nobody is interested in funding it.

I've seen a lot of films about ordinary German soldiers over the years, most of them quite unmemorable it has to be said. There is a sequel to Cross of Iron, believe it or not, with Richard Burton in the James Coburn Sgt Steiner role, but it's eminently forgettable. All Quiet on the Western Front remains one of the greatest war films of them all, but if you're talking exclusively about WW2 then I guess that one doesnt count.

But they are still making them nonetheless: Unsere Mutter, Unsere Vater from just a couple of years ago which was quite excellent and cant see any reason why more German filmmakers won't try and follow suit. Another I watched on Netflix recently is My Honour Was Loyalty which is Italian made, I think, with a very weird and unsettling commentary that tries to offer a counterpoint to the Nazis as sole WW2 villains narrative. A bit creepy really, but it did specifically deal with an ordinary German SS soldier on the front line.

Tony EH

Yeh, I saw that. It's called 'Breakthrough'. I actually own it on video. It's woeful. :pac: Robert Mitchum is in it as well. Handy paychecks all round.

There are some films being done, but they're few and far between in the grand scale of things and they usually quite poor. The TV remake of 'Die Brucke' is a prime example.

Haven't seen that 'Loyalty is My Honour' thing and probably won't. It sounds too low budget to be enjoyable.

Joe_ Public

Tony EH wrote: »

Yeh, I saw that. It's called 'Breakthrough'. I actually own it on video. It's woeful. :pac: Robert Mitchum is in it as well. Handy paychecks all round.

There are some films being done, but they're few and far between in the grand scale of things and they usually quite poor. The TV remake of 'Die Brucke' is a prime example.

Haven't seen that 'Loyalty is My Honour' thing and probably won't. It sounds too low budget to be enjoyable.

Its no blockbuster-like Dunkirk certainly, but i've definitely watched worse films, just the moralising voiceover kind of undermined it and left me cold.

I think we'll see more WW2 films from the Axis perspective being made, our appetite for war stuff seems insatiable and there's a lot of fresh material there yet to be mined. The likes of Letters from Iwo Jima and Downfall fall into this category and hollywood did have a go recently with Valkyrie.

One I thought was decent in recent times was My Way which details the circuitous route a Korean-Japanese soldier takes to be part of the wehrmacht on D Day.

Del.Monte

I've also watched "Breakthrough" - dreadful muck but "Cross of Iron" is right up there with the best war films ever made.

droidman123

Just watched John wick chapter 2,what a waste of 2 hours....pile of utter horse manure.how can they get away with spending what looked like a reasonable budget on this crap! It was only toward the end that I realised it wasn't meant to be a comedy
0/10

pixelburp

King Arthur (2017)

Another "bloke-sploitational" film from Guy Ritchie, clobbering the King Arthur myth round the head and dressing it in Lord of the Rings cosplay by way of 'Snatch'. The end product was precisely as enjoyable as ones tolerance for Ritchie's single gimmick of Cockney geezery will allow, so for me it made the whole experience excruciating to sit through & utterly, irredeemably obnoxious; it wasn't hard to fathom how and why this film tanked in the cinemas. To its slim credit though, it bucked a regrettable trend with current blockbusters, in that it wasn't a film that tried to front-load itself with winking sequel potential, instead everything wrapped up in the final act without any trailing ellipsis in the script. Thank god for small mercies.

droidman123

The invisible guardian (2017)
Excellent thriller from Spain,inspector amaia Salazar (brilliantly played by Marta etura) is sent back to her home town to lead the investigation into a number of murdered young girls. There's a serial killer at work and she also has to deal with her demons from the past in her home town.its brilliantly filmed with a bleak and rainy setting for the entire movie.its a thriller with supernatural undertones full of suspense.highly recommended.
8.5/10

branie2

The Dark tower, and I have to say that it was very good.

Southern Comfort 1981 A film I've watched many times now but love. Lots of familiar faces including Powers Booth and Keith Carradine are training with the national guard in the Louisiana Bayou when stealing some local trappers boats goes wrong and they begin to get hunted down. Just a simple film but tense and effective, and one of Booths best performances. The last ten minutes is fantastic and very much Walter Hill style with some brilliant music ratcheting up the tension

The Tenant 1976 Polanski film set in Paris where a young bachelor moves into an apartment where a woman had just jumped out the window in an apparent suicide. The new tenant quickly finds out he has some very strange neighbors and we soon realise there was more to meets the eye then a simple suicide!
The is a really a film of its era, artsy and kind of crazy.

charlie_says

Elle (2016)

A truly bizarre but excellent and very French, I'm not even quite sure of this, thriller that centers on a very successful woman with a disturbing past and how she deals with a rape. It's not what it sounds like. She is a very special kind of person whose life seems to revolve around dramatic events so much so that they become normal to her.

The actions of the people in this film really keep you guessing about motives and if they are all a bunch of sociopaths. I guess it's a film about attitude to sex.

I thought the ending was brilliant.

Isabelle Huppert is phenomenal in this, one of the best performances I've ever seen. I can't decide if I liked her character or thought she was a massive bitch.

Recommended.

Tony EH

'Pilgrimage'

Very good Irish/Belgian production, set in the early part of the 13th Century and dealing with the transport of an holy relic from the Irish west to the Papal states and the hands of Pope Innocent III (presuambly). On the way, they are beset on either side by Norman invaders and indigenous groups and must protect the relic at all costs.

Brendan Muldowney's film is a curious one. It's engaging, feels true to its setting, beautifully shot and well enough acted. It's only when the characters start talking that it starts to feel off. Laudably enough, there are different languages employed, Irish, French, Latin and English. All aided by subtitles. I like it, but it just feels odd for some reason. Something I can't put my finger on.

The new Spiderman (Tom Holland) does ok with his Irish parts and convinces in his novice monk role. Elsewhere there are some familiar Irish faces, like John Lynch and Hugh O'Conor, all putting in good turns. They're offset by Richard Armitage and Stanley Weber as the leader of the Norman escort and a French Monk sent from the continent. Bringing up the rear is The Walking Dead's Jon Berenthal, wisely restrained to a mute role, to avoid any "Truly this man was the son of God" moments.

It's a very straightforward and simple story, handled with great seriousness, with excellent use of the Irish landscape and the Ardennes.

7/10



'The Ghost Writer'

Roman Polanski's film version of Robert Harris' novel that features a highly critical attack on former British PM Tony Blair, his invovement in the war in Iraq and subsequent torture accusations. Blair is produced here as Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), a PM who's stepped down from office and is currently away on Martha's Vinyard with his wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and his entourage.

Assigned to finish an autobiography is an unnamed ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor), who's predecessor has died, due to an "accident". The ghost travels to the US to stay with Lang and complete the book, which is currently in a heavily guarded manuscript form.

Once there, events tumble out of control, as Lang is accused of war crimes by the ICC and the ghost discovers that all might not be not be as it seems.

Polanski's thriller is fine enough, but you get the feeling that it's just too close to real events and while personally I think there is a definite case to be made for an appearance before the ICC by both Blair and Bush (along with many others) it just feels like the film is hiding behind pseudonyms to avoid a libel, which I suppose it is. But, it's uncomfortable and constantly takes the viewer out the experience.

As a straightforward thriller though, it's very entertaining. This is largely to do with McGregor's everyman writer character. He's quite out of his depth, doesn't have all the answers and sort of blunders his way through. It's a very British "hero" that would be woefully out of place in an American film of the same type. But, he retains a stark believability because of it. Lang's wife, who is McGregor's counterpart for most of the film, is handled well by Olivia Williams. She's spitty and moody, but not completely uncharming. Brosnan's PM, Lang, while obviously a riff on Tony Blair remains just another Brosnan part, because Brosnan can't really do much else. But he's merely serviceable here. Perhaps it's just as well. I can only imagine a complete disaster if Brosnan had tried to emulate Blair in any way. As an aside, it would have been interesting to see what Michael Sheen (who played Blair in 2003) would have done with the role.

'The Ghost Writer' is steady in its pace and it's pulse rarely gets above normal. But, that doesn't mean its boring. Its quiet menace and internal confusion build to a relatively satisfying conclusion. But, even though 99% is complete fiction, it's just impossible to separate the fiction on the screen with the real life events and characters and it creates an uneasy edge to the whole film. Perhaps it's all just too soon?

7/10

ButtersSuki

Icarus on Netflix. Excellent documentary on the recent Russian Doping "Scandal". I say that in inverted commas as pretty much everyone knew it was going on - what was interesting about it is the level of detail this (and the previous German TV documentary on the same subject) uncovered. It's also interesting from the point of view of the original idea of the documentary itself; i.e. amateur cyclist takes on one of the world's toughest bike races clean v doped to see the differences - it's a shame that story fell to one side as the bigger story emerged with the Russian chemist by chance at the centre of it. Nonetheless, an 8/10.

Mr E

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars was very good. CGI movie with some of the original cast (Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer) doing voice work.

NIMAN

The hitmans bodyguard


Started watching this the other night and had to stop halfway through as it was getting too late.

To be honest, no real interest in watching the rest of it. For a film with 2 of my favourite actors, it was average at best. Maybe I'm just getting old, but all the silly humour and foul language did nothing for me.

5/10 at a push.

MadDog76

NIMAN wrote: »

The hitmans bodyguard


Started watching this the other night and had to stop halfway through as it was getting too late.

To be honest, no real interest in watching the rest of it. For a film with 2 of my favourite actors, it was average at best. Maybe I'm just getting old, but all the silly humour and foul language did nothing for me.

5/10 at a push.

5/10 for 50% of the movie .......... so if you watch the whole movie it gets 10/10 ......... right?

Unless you're rating the entire movie based on only watching 50% of it!???!!!! :eek:

B.A._Baracus

Red Dawn Remake.
The original is probably better but this is still pretty good.

When Jed is killed it chokes me up

Not a lot of "movie feels moments" get to me but this, just like moments in the original, do.

Good movies tho.

Brief_Lives

NIMAN wrote: »

The hitmans bodyguard


Started watching this the other night and had to stop halfway through as it was getting too late.

To be honest, no real interest in watching the rest of it. For a film with 2 of my favourite actors, it was average at best. Maybe I'm just getting old, but all the silly humour and foul language did nothing for me.

5/10 at a push.

How good was the quality, it has just been released in the cinema, right?
You sound like you were watching it at home though...

charlie_says

Mr E wrote: »

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars was very good. CGI movie with some of the original cast (Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer) doing voice work.

Pretty solid Starship Troopers yoke. Really good CGI. Action packed and cheesy as hell.

pewpewpewpew

smurf492

Brief_Lives wrote:

How good was the quality, it has just been released in the cinema, right? You sound like you were watching it at home though...

This was a Netflix production so got netflix release in certain countries s now its available in great quality on those winky nod sites...ðŸ˜

makeitcount

I watched "Let Me In" the other night. I'd been put off watching it as the original "Let The Right One In" was so good. The american remake has some great moments, but was let down by the terrible CGI throughout.