What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

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Heckler wrote: »

Hangman.

Serial killer thriller with Al Pacino and Karl Urban.

An absolute disaster. Pacino couldn't have looked more disinterested if he tried.

Granted I only lasted 40 minutes but I doubt it kicked ass in the last 40.

Godawful script and godawful acting especially the pathologist.

Avoid/10

I managed 10 minutes, rubbish..and i was at work getting paid to watch it.

stampydmonkey

Hector Savage wrote: »

Contratiempo (The Invisible Guest)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4857264/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Amazing film ! cannot recommend enough, one of the best Spanish films I've ever seen!

Just finished this. Excellent film.

Also sat through 40mins of baby driver..brutal... Was trying way too hard to be cool!

Gamb!t

Heckler wrote: »

Hangman.

Serial killer thriller with Al Pacino and Karl Urban.

An absolute disaster. Pacino couldn't have looked more disinterested if he tried.

Granted I only lasted 40 minutes but I doubt it kicked ass in the last 40.

Godawful script and godawful acting especially the pathologist.

Avoid/10

I was struggling with the trailer to be honest.

Harry Palmr

F/X (murder by illusion) 1986

One of those films which I remember fondly but which turns out to be pretty average! The biggest failing is a that apart from some obvious credibility stretching plot details the two stars are never even in the same scene until very near the end which is a pity as the two Bryans/Brians (Brown & Dennehy) would be an excellent double act I suspect.

Tony EH

'Le Samourai'

Melville's classic neo-noir French mood fest about a Parisian hitman, that still holds its own quite well. It's probably over rated by some, but it's a very good watch if you're in the right frame of mind. Alain Delon is perfect in the lead role and late 60's Paris is nicely captured - looking all the better in the recent Criterion release, it makes the Pathe blu ray from a number of years ago look like a VHS. I've never been comfortable with the ending of the film though, as Costello's (Alain Delon) choice doesn't seem like something his character would do. So, it gets a few points knocked off for that. Still, it's a great mopey Euro flick, but very much a case of style (but great style) over substance.

8/10


'Hangman'

Bog standard serial killer film about a sicko who uses the children's game as a hook for his murders, that seems to want to riff on 'Seven', but hasn't got the brains to do it successfully. Both Pacino and Urban - as the two cops hunting the Hangman serial killer - just glide along in their roles, never once coming off the basic rails of their character. Pacino, especially, seems to be there for a paycheck. Brittany Snow (as an unlikely bedded in reporter) does try a bit. But what happens to her character is so screenwriting 101, I don't have to tell you any more. It all falls flat by the third act, with an ending that's incredibly lame.

4/10

'Truth or Dare'

A bunch of truly tiresome teens, complete with piss poor attitudes and that annoying, fake, croaky, west coast, nouveaux, "American" accent gather together in an abandoned house to play truth or dare. It's the site of a bizarre series of deaths on the back of the same game (judged to be "accidents" by the law) in 1983 and one of the group thought it would be a bit of a laugh for him and his mates to play the same game at the same location 24 years later...gruesome events ensue. It sounds awful and it sort of is, but if you go with it, it's not entirely unenjoyable. There's some "fun" to be had - in a schadenfreude way - seeing these awful people meet their end and the gore/cringe moments are handled well enough, which is what a picture like this is going to hinge on anyway. Mildly ok and a passable 90 minutes, but ruined by a truly awful "black out" ending, that left me thinking that I'd missed part of the film.

4/10

NIMAN

A film I had never heard of and missed when it was released.

Hell or High Water with Jeff Bridges.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582782/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Really enjoyed it.
7.5/10

Fingers Mcginty

"Black Robe" ... Saw it years ago but couldn't remember the name of it.
Stumbled upon it again recently. Wow what an amazing film it is. If you're into frontier type films give it a go. Well worth a watch.

barrymanilow

Enemy (2013)
A denis villenuve film , sought it out after enjoying the new blade runner . A bit of an arty moody one,slow moving and deep , Really enjoyed it it'll keep you thinking, kind of thing that might end up on a film course.

It comes at night (2017)
Strange post apocalyptic low budget film , that uses great technique to crank up the suspense , asks more questions than it answers.

The survivalist(2015)
Another post apocalyptic low budget film , made in N.Ireland,great job with such low budget , enjoyed it .

Mystery Road (2013)
Set in Australia , An indigenous detective investigates the murder of an aboriginal girl in the outback . Has one of the best shootouts in film history by my book .Liked it a lot.

buried

The Firm (1989) - Alan Clarke - Not the Tom cruise yoke

Clarke's fantastic dramatic horror portrait of the world of the British inner city football hooligan fronted by Gary Oldman's frightening character of 'Becksy' as he wages war against rival gangs to ultimately decide who will lead a national English 'firm' into Germany during an international football tournament.

To me, this was less about basic hooliganism but more a cultural snapshot of late 1980's young men with good careers living in a world of total dog eat dog consumerism and zero community, where the only way to get any sense of community is by dog eat dog tribalism from literally kicking the $hit out of another colour shirted tribe. Even just a deadpan scene where Oldmans character goes to buy some first class rail tickets in a shop showcases this cold no broad community grimness.

Loads of famous British soap stars playing total animals which was a good laugh too. I thought it was brilliant but grim enough watching for a friday night but that was mine own fault.
8/10

branie2

Battle of the Sexes at the cinema last night. I really enjoyed it.

ButtersSuki

Been traveling a lot with work and not watching as much as I'd like but here's what I've watched recently:

The House Will Ferrel and Amy Pohler. Meh. 4/10.

Ray Donovan (Season 5) Good, but possibly not as good as previous seasons. 7/10

Mindhunter TERRIBLE 1st episode, but picked up after that. Not bad by any means, but people are going way overboard describing it as the best thing ever etc. It's not. 7/10.

I know I saw something in the cinema too recently but the fact I can't remember it says something I think!

pixelburp

Atomic Blonde (2017)

I had been a little disappointed I missed seeing this in the cinema, but upon actual viewing feel like I dodged a bullet in retrospect. Lumpy, terribly paced, and just plain dull - surely the worst crime an ostensible 'action thriller' can commit. One half of the duo that directed John Wick, and the proven badass charms of Charlize Theron somehow contrived to miss the mark completely, making for a final product that only once managed to climb the heights set by their previous work; one small - if admittedly thrilling - scene set in a stairwell was instead bookended by pure tedium, interspersed with lukewarm Cold War clichés that would make LeCarré weep, and blatant 1980s nostalgia bait - the era used as a blunt instrument to batter the head of its audiences with clumsy soundtrack cues & winking fashion blunders.

Decuc500

Last Embrace

Jonathan Demme film from 1979 that I wasn’t aware of until recently. Signal One released a blu ray disc of it.

It’s clearly inspired by Hitchcock and similar to the type of lurid thriller that Brian De Palma was making at the time.

I really liked it. These melodramatic thrillers were very popular in the 80’s and they don’t seem to make them anymore which is a shame.

It has some lovely shots of New York and features a very good Roy Scheider performance.

NIMAN

Watched Mudbound last night.
Think it is a Netflix only film.

Really enjoyed it, some tough topics around racism in the US around time of WW2.

8/10.

Tony EH

pixelburp wrote: »

Atomic Blonde (2017)

I had been a little disappointed I missed seeing this in the cinema, but upon actual viewing feel like I dodged a bullet in retrospect. Lumpy, terribly paced, and just plain dull - surely the worst crime an ostensible 'action thriller' can commit. One half of the duo that directed John Wick, and the proven badass charms of Charlize Theron somehow contrived to miss the mark completely, making for a final product that only once managed to climb the heights set by their previous work; one small - if admittedly thrilling - scene set in a stairwell was instead bookended by pure tedium, interspersed with lukewarm Cold War clichthat would make LeCarreep, and blatant 1980s nostalgia bait - the era used as a blunt instrument to batter the head of its audiences with clumsy soundtrack cues & winking fashion blunders.

The trailer said everything I needed to know about this. Looked like a really dumb film that didn't represent the cold war a single bit.

Fysh

pixelburp wrote: »

Atomic Blonde (2017)

I had been a little disappointed I missed seeing this in the cinema, but upon actual viewing feel like I dodged a bullet in retrospect. Lumpy, terribly paced, and just plain dull - surely the worst crime an ostensible 'action thriller' can commit. One half of the duo that directed John Wick, and the proven badass charms of Charlize Theron somehow contrived to miss the mark completely, making for a final product that only once managed to climb the heights set by their previous work; one small - if admittedly thrilling - scene set in a stairwell was instead bookended by pure tedium, interspersed with lukewarm Cold War clichés that would make LeCarré weep, and blatant 1980s nostalgia bait - the era used as a blunt instrument to batter the head of its audiences with clumsy soundtrack cues & winking fashion blunders.

It wasn't subtle, but I did like a few things about it - visually it was quite engaging (perhaps more so on a big screen, admittedly helped by seeing it at the cinema in Alexanderplatz that features in one scene in the film ), and it was a pleasant change to see an espionage-related film whose protagonist is openly stated to have been chosen for their combat skills (given how often we get James-Bond-esque "spies" who are more like soldiers in tuxes, with all the subtlety and discretion of a size 12 boot to the nadgers), and where the fights felt gruellingly physical.

The cold war clichés did wear a bit heavy, but Le Carré in film has always been a load of tedious self-regarding bollockery for me, so frankly if I'm going to have nonsense I'd rather have it presented with a decent soundtrack and good scene-framing. Plus there was a pretty good joke about the whole Cold War Berlin setting when Theron & McAvoy are first in the car and he drives her to her hotel, which I assume was a deliberate lampshading of the way the setting was used.

My biggest complaint about the film was that, as with practically every American action film in the last 10 years or so, it's about 30 minutes longer than it needs to be for no particular reason and over-exposits its not-all-that-interesting plot. On top of which,

it dumps an interestingly ambiguous ending in favour of a much more pedestrian one

.

joombo

Base 7/10

Never like these types of go pro style movies but this is good. The film captures the rush of skydiving and wingsuit flying while telling the story of man and his reason for chasing death. Good screenplay excellent pace, never felt it was dragging on.

Tony EH

'The Thin Blue Line'

Errol Morris' 1988 documentary about Texas police incompetence and the conviction of Randall Adams for the murder of policeman Robert Wood. It's a fairly pedestrian ride to its conclusion, but still chilling all the same. The interviews with David Harris being the stand out items.

Harris was the one who killed Wood, but let Texas police convict Adams for it. The police also groomed "witnesses" and were extremely sloppy in their "investigation". The level of incompetence is appalling. Harris comes across as an incredibly nice guy. The kind of fella you'd imagine wouldn't hurt a fly. He's polite, always smiling, seems breezy and easy going. Yet, he's had a string of problems with the law and eventually ended up getting the death penalty for murder and attempted kidnapping of a girl. He truly was a disturbed and very disturbing character.

Spoilers are there, because it's best watched not knowing about the case.


9/10

Tom Mann Centuria

Watched Hacksaw Ridge on Netflix today, thoroughly enjoyed it, no idea how accurate to the true story it was but the footage of the real Doss at the end was very moving. Garfield seemed to take his mannerism off quite well too.

Vince Vaughan needed a bigger gun though. :pac:

Pero_Bueno

Terminator 2 remastered in 4K !
Got to see it in the cinema, I don't know what they've done but its more than just detail that they have remastered, the colours seem more vivid too - amazing, highly recommend it.

Apparently there is a 3D version - I saw the 2D one, I wouldn't be arsed seeing the gimmicky 3D.

joombo

Mississippi Burning - 7/10

Feel like a bit of a fool for not ever taking the time to watch this. For those who aren’t familiar, it stars Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe, and is loosely based on the 1964 murders of 3 civil rights activists (2 white, 1 black). Also stars a young Frances McDormand and a scene stealing Brad Dourif (Wormtongue LoTR).

All in all, it was a really enjoyable film, though not perfect. There were certainly a few scenes that felt too “Hollywood” and didn’t really fit the overall tone of the film; but overall, really enjoyable.

p to the e

Hypernormalisation - A great Adam Curtis documentary trying to explain how we got to where we currently are in the world. Trump, Brexit, Syria, suicide bombing. Interesting to see that a lot of these, and more, can have almost single point origins (damn you Kissinger). It's available to view on Youtube but it clocks in at nearly 3 hours.

Baby Driver - What it tries to achieve by looking overly stylish ends up just being annoying. From what I've read it seems to be very divisive and I'm certainly in the "meh" camp.

barrymanilow

The thirteenth floor - smart scifi , had the misfortune of being released the same week as the Matrix so it went unnoticed . worth a watch if you like clever sci-fi stuff.

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

fin12

Anyone seen Daddy’s Home 2?

smurf492

fin12 wrote:

Anyone seen Daddy’s Home 2?

Found it very funny and a great Christmas movie addition..

branie2

I really enjoyed Atomic Blonde

joombo

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - 9/10

Definitely a top pick for me this year.

bladespin

joombo wrote: »

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - 9/10

Definitely a top pick for me this year.

Caught my eye the other day, was really intrigued, must watch now, thanks.

joombo

Detroit

I've enjoyed Kathryn Bigelow’s previous two films (Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker), so expected similar quality. It’s just “ok”. It’s well shot, but the acting and writing are a big, fat “meh”.

A 5/10 from me, if you aren’t aware, means it’s worth watching. And in this case, it’s worth watching simply to watch Poulter act circles around everyone.

al87987

French connection - 8/10. Decent car chase and Hackman chewing scenes. Holds up well

Italian job - 6/10. 'My cocaine' is good but not a great flick. Expected better.

Confessions. 7.5/10. Decent Japanese film. Pretty full on revenge, at times difficult to watch, good flick though.

The Handmaiden - 8.5/10 park chan wook film (he of oldboy fame). Very good, would recommend, bonus lesbian scenes if thats yo thang