What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Loughc

Sad Professor wrote: »

That's in the UK. Over here the IFCO have given it a 15A. It seems unlikely it's the cut version. However, the DVD/Blu-ray will be.

Even 15A makes me sad. Where are the good 18's action films gone to?

Mickeroo

lockie1983 wrote: »

Even 15A makes me sad. Where are the good 18's action films gone to?

Tbf what would have gotten an 18 is the 80s and early 90s would barely get a 15 today.

e_e

lockie1983 wrote: »

Even 15A makes me sad. Where are the good 18's action films gone to?

Dredd and The Raid would like a word with you.

e_e

But yeah the original Die Hard would be a 15A by today's standards, easily.

krudler

e_e wrote: »

But yeah the original Die Hard would be a 15A by today's standards, easily.

Tone has a lot to do with it, Die Hard is quite dark in places with some nasty violence, its not a fun filled summer blockbuster like today's.

Tony EH

It would still be a 15 though, easily.

In fact I remember, when I was a kid, the biggest deal about 'Die Hard' was when Bruce Willis said "Yippie Kay ay mother****er". My parents used to get very uncomfortable about that particular swearword.

****, ****, **** and piss were grand though.

My biggest surprise is not at the age rating that the new Die Hard film is getting, but the fact that this tired series is still going. The first one is the only decent one, by a very large margin.

Mickeroo

Watched Harakiri last night. Was glad I hadn't seen the Miike remake first(I hear it's pretty much identical?). Was thoroughly engrossed for the whole running time, the way the story unfolds, slowly revealing whats happaning bit by bit, was brilliant. All in all it was a pretty cynical portrayal of the Samurai class & bushido code held together by a great performance from Tatsuya Nakadi, easily up there with any of Toshiro Mifune's work in the genre.

crazygeryy

silver linings playbook

i liked it a lot and i think jennifer lawerence and bradley cooper deservedly got oscar nominations for it.
well worth a watch.

the master.
i just dont know what to say about this movie.it must have be in some way interesting because i watched all 137 mins of it.Joaquin Phoenix as usual is brilliant in it and so was Philip Seymour Hoffman ,but the movie itself..............watch it judge for yourself.

the hounds
a low budget english horror movie.rubbish absolute rubbish.

johnny_ultimate

The Naked Island - Well this wonderful film caught me off guard. I was familiar with Kaneto Shindo's much pulpier duo of ghost stories (Onibaba and Kuroneko) but unfamiliar with the rest of his vast filmography. This 1960 feature is probably his best known film outside his supernatural ones, so it was the obvious next step. But I didn't expect such bold stylisation - shot entirely without dialogue and in beautiful 2.35:1 wide-angled cinematography. The film follows a small family of farmers living on a remote, relatively barren island in a bay somewhere near Hiroshima (social context!). It's a film about the ritual and cyclical nature of working life, and a considered, thoughtful reflection on individuals struggling to get by in a world of rapid modernisation and unexpected tragedy. The film's rhythm - many scenes of the repetition of daily life, interrupted occasionally by more dramatic events - is hypnotic.

Interestingly, the film received something of a backlash in Japan and abroad following its rapturous initial critical and commercial reception. The main complaints were that it romanticised the plight of the 'peasant farmer', and perpetuated stereotypes of post-war Japan. Couldn't disagree more - found it a thought-provoking and balanced look at a society in flux through the eyes of one family. More than anything, though, it's the bold presentation that woos. Highly recommended, and the Masters of Cinema DVD is reliably impeccable.

Mickeroo wrote: »

Was glad I hadn't seen the Miike remake first(I hear it's pretty much identical?).

Yeah, pretty much. It just feels like a complete waste of time really. A handful of relatively unimportant changes, but its loyal to the point that you wonder why Miike bothered. It was, however, the film that swore me off 3D pretty much for good - obviously a particularly misjudged three-dimensional production (the production design and cinematography is constantly undermined by the dimmed glasses), but it was sort of an 'enough is enough' moment for me.

e_e

Wendy and Lucy

I love this brand of extremely realistic and minimalist US dramas that have surfaced over the past decade. Michelle Williams is just great in it and I was involved from the get go, despite a minimum of plot and dialog. It's just perfect in its simplicity.

Sad Professor

No:

Excellent Chilean political drama-cum-satire. Witty and smartly written, but oh my is it ugly!

johnny_ultimate

Sad Professor wrote: »

No:

Excellent Chilean political drama-cum-satire. Witty and smartly written, but oh my is it ugly!

Ugly with good cause though! Thought it was a neat little stylistic trick - not that I want it to become commonplace I did have to laugh at how mental the exposure went when direct sunlight was involved!

Somewhat of a shame the film's offbeat look and subtitles will keep it out of most cinemas. I think it would be very warmly received by a wider audience.

Sad Professor

I just thought it was a bit gimmicky. There's so much videotape footage from that era in the film anyway it seemed unnecessary to shoot the whole film that way. Shooting it on film and grading it to resemble '80s film stock would have been just as effective. I thought we were over the whole Dogme '95 thing.

johnny_ultimate

Sad Professor wrote: »

I just thought it was a bit gimmicky. There's so much videotape footage from that era in the film anyway it seemed unnecessary to shoot the whole film that way. Shooting it on film and grading it to resemble '80s film stock would have been just as effective. I thought we were over the whole Dogme '95 thing.

I don't know, I think U-Matic has a very distinctive look that you couldn't come close to replicating with grading. Given the film is about how the referendum was influenced by the aesthetics and language of television advertising at the time, I felt it was a well justified artistic decision. Given the heavy reliance on archive material it would have seemed distracting had it jumped back and forth between formats. A gimmick arguably, but a fun one. It gave the film a completely distinctive look and sense of place and time, and even Dogma 95 films would have used very different types of cameras than No does.

I'm all for gorgeous, expensive and 'cinematic' cinematography, but it's nice to every so often to see someone break from the mold visually. No might be ugly, but at the same time I thought it had good cause to be so. Although definitely a neat one-off as opposed to something that should set a precedent

MaxSteele

Cloud Atlas -

Well worth the watch. Some of the Cinematography and visuals were great. Three hours long and very complex. You won't really understand it until the last half hour. I'm still trying to put it together myself.

In a nutshell, six different stories take place between 1849, 1936, 1973, 2012, 2144 and around 2400 AD. It's alluded to that when you die your soul lives on and you are somehow inexplicably linked to your past life or future.

Most of the actors appear as different people in each time period.

DazMarz

Beautiful Boy

A tale of the impact upon the parents of an American school-spree shooter.

Michael Sheen and Maria Bello are in top-class form as the couple "trapped" in a loveless marriage, that is being tenuously held intact by their 18 year old college student son (played with doe-eyed innocence that masks future terror by Kyle Gallner). The family is barely functional as a unit, and the parents do not sleep in the same bed. They are cordial, but not warm.

The emotion in the film and the cathartic nature of some scenes make this a wonderful film. It does not go for shocks, and we never see the college shooting, merely hear reports of it as they come in and we stand witness as the horror unfolds.

It is not easy to watch. It is incredibly sad and moving in parts, as the parents struggle with the notion that their innocent, quiet, harmless son could inflict so much damage upon his fellow man. The scene at the start of the film with the three way phone call is particularly moving. Sammy (the son) is calling his parents. His eyes are filled with un-fallen tears as he struggles to say something but can't. His parents want to say more, but don't. There is so much unsaid and you just wonder if a word or two of love and affection from someone could have prevented what unfolded.

Sheen is in mesmerising form as the shocked, detached and emotionally starved father. The scenes of his attempts to cope and his eventual breakdown are haunting.

The film is subtly brilliant. It is difficult to watch, but it is such a powerful film and it does leave us with the idea that it is not entirely fair to leave blame with the families of kids who kill; Sheen and Bello's characters are (as they say themselves) not bad parents, nor are they good parents. They are painfully average, and yet they both in their own small ways created a killer. These thoughts and accusations get slung at each other in a very real and very emotional fight in the film.

An excellent, if very downbeat, film.

brianregan09

Warm Bodies: Great little movie , quite funny in places and the love story type thing is done diffrent to most of these type of films and doens't feel corny or stupid at all ,some really great moments and good action too

Lawless: A slow starter this one but thouroughly enjoyable, Guy pearce as the prohibiton guy was the standout in this movie for me what a gowl lol, Also this is the 1st time I enjoyed shia lebouef in a movie good performance great movie all round

McGrath5

Silver Lining Playbook

Very enjoyable film, excellent cast with a equally excellent soundtrack. One of the best films from 2012 for me.
Very interesting to see Bradley Cooper play a role that has a lot of depth, also Robert De Niro puts in his best performance for a long long time.

9/10

Winter in Wartime

Superb WW2 era film, excellently told story about a young a boy drawn to the Dutch resistance.
This is up on the Irish Netflix, watch if you already haven't.

8/10.

MiloYossarian

Fatal Contact

It's an asian film about underground fighting. I watched it to see Asian people beating the pulp out of each other by executing moves that I can only dream of, however it turned out to be quite a good tragedy. I don't want to get too in to it but the characters are very well drawn out...The best way I can put it is that it's like The Grey, an action film that has characters with some depth. Except in this one, Liam Neeson fights the wolf.

briany

Lunopolis

No budget found footage sci-fi.

3 men stumble upon GPS co-ordinates that leads them to investigate a Moon conspiracy that involves the future, the past, other dimensions, a strange cult, a rare gem, doppelgangers, Atlantis and ghosts.

An interesting, ambitious film that gets it done on a shoestring budget. Plot holes are there if you want to pick but I found the film quite entertaining if a little bit convoluted at times.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants)

Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet play childhood friends who bonded over a game of dares. As they grown up they continue their game but the stakes get higher and higher.

I thought this was going to be a typical rom com type film, and I guess in a way it is, as in you know from the start these two are in love and we're watching to see when they'll realise it. But that's where the "rom com" comparisons end.

Both characters are obviously lacking in the common sense departments and they are WAY too dependent on each other, which is fine when they're kids but as they get older it's bizarre, a bit dark, but very enjoyable. At times you wonder do they actually love each other, or do they hate each other?

I'm not 100% sure how it ended exactly.... but I enjoyed it none the less.

siblers

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants)

Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet play childhood friends who bonded over a game of dares. As they grown up they continue their game but the stakes get higher and higher.

I thought this was going to be a typical rom com type film, and I guess in a way it is, as in you know from the start these two are in love and we're watching to see when they'll realise it. But that's where the "rom com" comparisons end.

Both characters are obviously lacking in the common sense departments and they are WAY too dependent on each other, which is fine when they're kids but as they get older it's bizarre, a bit dark, but very enjoyable. At times you wonder do they actually love each other, or do they hate each other?

I'm not 100% sure how it ended exactly.... but I enjoyed it none the less.

Watched that years ago and really enjoyed it. Thought it was quite a clever premise for a film and pretty well developed.


Watched The Perks Of Being A Wallflower recently, I enjoyed it, unlike so many reviews I've read, I can't say I can really relate it to though.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

siblers wrote: »

Watched that years ago and really enjoyed it. Thought it was quite a clever premise for a film and pretty well developed.

Yeah, I enjoyed it but didn't really understand the ending. Then a while later I was thinking about it and I realised the bit after the ending was like a "what if" like if they'd just dared to love each other at any of the other available opportunities this is how things could have been. I enjoyed it even more then


Oh, and I watched Toy Story 3 tonight, it wasn't great. I don't know, maybe I'm the only person in the world who doesn't have some sentimental attachment to the first 2 films? I remember seeing them when they were originally out in the cinema and all that but I just found this one kind of boring and long. There wasn't really any jokes in it, I didn't get sad once, it just was all a bit meh for me. Compare it to other animated films of recent years, such as the wonderful How To Train Your Dragon, and it just doesn't compare.

Bozo Skeleton

I saw 2 films in the Dublin Film Festival today. Describing them would mean spoilers so I'll give them a personal mark out of 10.
8.5/10

7.5/10

Both worth watching. Especially Blancanieves.

MiloYossarian

Almost Famous

I watched it before, enjoyed it more this time. The music was great.

The Black Oil

The Grey.

Thought this would be one of those Liam Neeson films where you expect him to deploy his ninja skills in every other scene, and that survivors would be picked off very, very quickly. but not really. Like the ending, too.

Bassboxxx

The Master Great performances from Hoffman and Phoenix were the best thing about this film. I felt it threatened to grab me with a few different story lines but didn't manage any of them. If you're into pinning your own ideas onto a film this will give lots of opportunity...not the worst film I've seen by a long shot, but if it was 40 mins shorter I would have been happy.

zlwtoiihtgne

I finally got around to watching 'Killer Joe', unsure what to make of it to be honest, amazing performances from all involved, it's missing something I feel.

zlwtoiihtgne

I also watched 'Senna' recently which I adored.

candy-gal1

The cringefest, cheesy as hell, britney flick Crossroads :rolleyes::D:)
If you shut off your brain for a while its actually quite enjoyable, same as Sex and the city imho, plus havent seen this since I was 15 when I went to see it in the cinema so BIG flashback there anyway!

Big Business - 80s nostalgia of seeing this when I was small FTW

Avatar - Finally saw this and definitly worth a watch imho, I didnt think much of the trailers when it was in cinemas so wasnt pushed on seeing it, action scenes near the end a tad prolonged imho but overall an amazing movie, keeps you watching! Tis on my list to see in 3D, id say its amazing!