What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Seedy Arling

firestarter51 wrote: »

dead mans shoes, good film, very moving , best of the film4 lot so far

Great movie, really gritty. Paddy Considine is a class act.

Fysh

Repo Men was on TV last night. Brainless, internally-inconsistent nonsense passing itself as sci-fi and trying to fill the gaps in plot or character depth with gore. I'm pretty sure I dozed off at least once during this, without feeling like I'd missed anything important. I found myself annoyed after noticing that it tried to borrow the hallway scene from Oldboy and the ending from Brazil, because neither scene was borrowed well.

It's not appalling, or anything, but as anything more than background noise it's not really worth seeking out...

firestarter51

The heat with Sandra bullock and mellissa mccarthy not a bad comedy, the two work well together, a few laughs to be had, it won't win any oscars but worth a watch

krudler

Red Lights on netflix, was a somewhat interesting premise that gets sillier and sillier as it went one, awful, cop out ending as well.

johnny_ultimate

Tange Sazen: The Million Ryo Pot: delightful and energetic pre-war samurai comedy. A story about a lazy, has been ronin caught up in the search for a pot allegedly illustrated with a treasure map, its beautifully paced, and perfectly balanced in terms of character and humour. Particularly neat the way edits are used to provide ridiculous, amusing punchlines to scenes, showing up the weaknesses of characters in the process.

Alas, it's one of only three surviving films from prolific director Sadao Yamanaka, who was killed in WW2. Going by the evidence of this, I greatly anticipate the other two.

Judgement Day

"Rewind" (2010) Amy Huberman is a young woman with a dark past which comes back to haunt her in the shape of an old boyfriend. Another tale from the underbelly of the 'Celtic Tiger' which I could have done without seeing. Despite the presence of Ms.Huberman (and a tiny cameo from Simon Delaney playing Simon Delaney) it was poor fare indeed. 3/10



The past cannot be erased - but this movie should be!

Sleepy

Save the Date - normally I can handle the girly rom-coms Mrs Sleepy enjoys occasionally but this one took the biscuit. Lizzy Caplan's lead as Sarah is such an infuriatingly narcissistic, self-obsessed twat that I found myself audibly berating the character and just wishing she'd get hit by a car. Timothy Busfield is utterly wasted in his blink and you'd miss it role and the only satisfaction I've been able to find in this movie was that it didn't have it's own thread on here. Avoid at all costs.

Source Code - This I quite enjoyed though I think it would have been a far better ending had

they not insisted on going down the "alternate universe" angle at the end and simply had him die when unplugged

. Very much on the "fi" end of Sci-fi but enjoyable nonetheless and a reasonable enough whodunnit that it keeps you engaged with it.

krudler

Judgement Day wrote: »

"Rewind" (2010) Amy Huberman is a young woman with a dark past which comes back to haunt her in the shape of an old boyfriend. Another tale from the underbelly of the 'Celtic Tiger' which I could have done without seeing. Despite the presence of Ms.Huberman (and a tiny cameo from Simon Delaney playing Simon Delaney) it was poor fare indeed. 3/10



The past cannot be erased - but this movie should be!

You must have the patience of a saint sitting through all those terrible Irish movies, I couldn't do it :pac:

Tony EH

But the cover says it's "remarkable"

Judgement Day

Tony EH wrote: »

But the cover says it's "remarkable"

"remarkable" that anyone should have considered it worth making, paying for or watching...:D

johnny_ultimate

Continuing Yamanaka fest 2013 (disclaimer: not actual festival) with Humanity and Paper Balloons. Emphasis is very much on the humanity. Critical and cynical deconstruction of the last days of samurai culture, a time where traditional honour and respectability count for little. It's theoretically tragic, melodramatic stuff, but Yamanaka's camera is kept at a considered distance. Indeed, it's a film where the director trusts the actors' expressions, not dialogue, to portray the gravity of the situations, and the more violent scenes are lent more power as they all occur off camera. It's not afraid to entertain or have some fun either, but nonetheless it's quite a stark difference from The Million Ryo Pot last night, and they're both expertly crafted in their very individual ways. One surviving film left, and I'm wagering on it being somewhere between miserable and wacky :pac:

Pacific Rim

Great visuals and whatnot, but I would like to find the 14 year old who wrote the script and force feed it to him.

Also don't give me "Ah sher what do you expect it is a high concept action film with robots and aliens" There is no excuse for such lazy writing.

I was not expecting Glen Garry Glen Ross type acting performances at all, but I thought with Del Toro at the wheel then it cant be that bad. It was.

Shameful Display.

5/10 would not watch again.

tunguska

Django uncahined

Im a big fan of 60s & 70s westerns and I thought this was magnificent. Christoph waltz was great, playing a decent guy with a not so decent job. But I think decaprio was even better, he was brilliant. Think maybe the academy gave the oscar to waltz because it felt uncomfortable about rewarding the type of character Decaprio played. Dialogue was sharp, script tight, some top set pieces and the music, as usual with tarantino was perfect.

10/10

stiffler123

Sharknado

After seeing the trailer I couldn't resist. Features acting titans such as Tara Reid and Steve from the original Beverly Hills 90210. I love a good B movie, and this was great. Ignore the crap CGI, ridiculous plot and porn star level acting and just enjoy it. There is an epic chain saw scene towards the end too, and some references to jaws through out. 8/10(for a B movie).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XxuBIiFZKs

Judgement Day

The Book That Wrote Itself (1999) on DVD. A quirky, low-budget movie about an aspiring author Vincent Macken (Liam O Mochain) who believes he has written what he thinks is the best post modern novel ever. His novel “The Daughter of Conn”, is a Celtic quest saga but when he hears two literary agents laughing at his efforts he determines to prove them wrong. He hires Aisling Arrigan (Antoinette Guiney), an aspiring filmmaker, to document his novel on video and they head off on a rail road trip to act out the saga in a modern day context around Ireland. It has its moments and at €25k you can't fault the production quality, but at the end of the day it's much ado about nothing. NOT a keeper. 7/10 for effort.

johnny_ultimate

Battle Royale - don't confuse it with some bull****, this film is so much more than another disposable piece of Asia Extreme. The tone is achieved an inspired balancing act between tense thriller, dark satire, social critique and actual character work. It's pretty breathlessly put together (there are one or two jarring edits a little too breathless), but Kinji Fukasuku barely wastes a second. There's constant momentum, but also lots of time dedicated to developing characters and conflicts in a convincing and intriguing way, just enough left up to the viewer's imagination amidst the violent melodrama. Even ol' Kitano in his limited screen time manages to dive into the psychology of his charismatic psychopath.

Forget the misjudged sequel, ignore a certain high-profile derivative - this manages to be wildly entertaining without foregoing intelligence or careful craftsmanship.

Liam McPoyle

Maniac (2012)

The original Maniac is one of the best 80s slashers there was,nasty,sleazy,very violent and with a scene stealing turn from Joe Spinnell as the protagonist Frank Zito, a hulking screen presence.

When I'd heard it was been remade I was disappointed, when I heard Elijah Wood was taking the leading role I face palmed myself in shock so suffice to say I wasn't expecting anything from this other than a profound sense of annoyance but I have to say, as remakes go, I thought it pretty damn good.

The story centres on a lonely man with severe mother issues having witnessed her prostituting herself and drug abusing during his formative years.

Frank spends his time restoring antique mannequins and to unwind he stalks,murders and scalps women around New York.

The movie is shot pretty much entirely from Franks POV which sounded to me like a lame gimmick but actually worked quite well as it keeps wood off screen for the most part.

The original sported some of the best special effects work of the time courtesy of maestro Tom Savini and while the gore in the remake isn't as good, there are some very nice kills, in particular a genuinely cringe inducing Achilles' tendon slice that turns into an ankle break, it's a helluva lot worse than the up to now high point of a similar scene in Hostel.

While it won't change the world it is worth a watch and is a grand way to spend 100 or so minutes.

7/10

briany

The Hardy Bucks Movie (2013)

The Bucks decide to get out of dreary Castletown and go to Poland where Ireland are playing in the '12 Euros. On the way they get into hash and alcohol fuelled divilment and adventures.

Very, very average. It suffers from the same problem that it's Canadian cousin, Trailer Park Boys, suffers from when it tries to transfer to feature length which is that it's suited to 22 minutes and they can't sustain it over 90 in a satisfying way.

A couple of good laughs here and these but forgettable beyond that.

Judgement Day

briany wrote: »

The Hardy Bucks Movie (2013)

The Bucks decide to get out of dreary Castletown and go to Poland where Ireland are playing in the '12 Euros. On the way they get into hash and alcohol fuelled divilment and adventures.

Very, very average. It suffers from the same problem that it's Canadian cousin, Trailer Park Boys, suffers from when it tries to transfer to feature length which is that it's suited to 22 minutes and they can't sustain it over 90 in a satisfying way.

A couple of good laughs here and these but forgettable beyond that.

Even in the interests of my researches on Irish movies I draw the line at watching anything to do with the Hardy Bucks. I was unfortunate enough to catch brief glimpses of the show on TV and it's unwatchable ****e in my opinion.

briany

Judgement Day wrote: »

Even in the interests of my researches on Irish movies I draw the line at watching anything to do with the Hardy Bucks. I was unfortunate enough to catch brief glimpses of the show on TV and it's unwatchable ****e in my opinion.

I draw the line at Upwardly Mobile but there you go.

In defence of HB, it's not trying to be anything too grand but the premise and writing just can't sustain a feature length thing. It was never really meant to go beyond the 10 minute web shorts in much the same way as Coneheads or Macgruber should have stayed on SNL.

MakeEmLaugh

Super is on Film4 now. I've seen it before. Very strange film...

firestarter51

killing season, deniro and travolta, i enjoyed it, only the two lads in it so it seems to drag on, worth a watch
guilt trip, i was looking for a comedy so i went for seth rogan, this was dire, not even a couple of giggles, more of a weird story of bonding between mother and son

AllthingsCP

Just watched the 5 seasons of Stargate Atlantis god i loved that show.

Looper007

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Super is on Film4 now. I've seen it before. Very strange film...

It's far bleaker and tougher film then Kick Ass. I could see why it didn't do any business at the box office. Ellen Page give her best performance in this

When her character gets her head blown off, it does show that this dressing up playing Superheroes has a price

. Well worth a watch.

Hallyington

Valhalla Rising
Nice visuals, interesting story and brilliant ending.

8/10

Looper007

Hallyington wrote: »

Valhalla Rising
Nice visuals, interesting story and brilliant ending.

8/10

Loved this film, Refn does churn out warped and brilliant films. Only god Forgives continues that tradition on. It's a cross between Aguire Wrath of God and Ichi the Killer. Mads Mikkelsen is always great. Not Refn's best film but still a great film.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I've been trying to watch Greenberg for the past two days. It's so boring though I had to give up eventually.

Hallyington

Looper007 wrote: »

Loved this film, Refn does churn out warped and brilliant films. Only god Forgives continues that tradition on. It's a cross between Aguire Wrath of God and Ichi the Killer. Mads Mikkelsen is always great. Not Refn's best film but still a great film.

You've seen Only God Forgives?

Refns films are pretty strange but always build a certain atmosphere, the drug scene near the end of Valhalla Rising was brilliant.

Crackle

Watched Apocalypse Now in its entirety today for the first time. Absolutely loved it.

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning"

DazMarz

Crackle wrote: »

Watched Apocalypse Now in its entirety today for the first time. Absolutely loved it.

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning"

The horror.... the horror....

What a film. One of the best, if not quite simply THE best, war films of all time. Brilliant.